Growing Operational Use of FY-3 Data in the ECMWF System

• Published in: Advances in atmospheric sciences Vol. 38; no. 8; pp. 1285 - 1298
• Main Authors: Bormann, Niels, Duncan, David, English, Stephen, Healy, Sean, Lonitz, Katrin, Chen, Keyi, Lawrence, Heather, Lu, Qifeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Science Press 01-08-2021; Springer Nature B.V; Department of Atmospheric Sciences,Chengdu University of Information Technology,Chengdu 610225,China%National Satellite Meteorological Centre,China Meteorological Administration,Beijing 10081,China; European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts,Reading RG29AX,United Kingdom%International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences,Institute of Atmospheric Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100029,China; University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China
• Subjects: Application and Assessment; Atmospheric Sciences; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Fengyun Meteorological Satellites: Data; Geophysics/Geodesy; Instruments; Meteorological satellites; Meteorology; Microwave imagery; Microwave radiometers; Original Paper; Polar orbiting satellites; Radio occultation; Radiometers; Satellite observation; Satellite-borne instruments; Stratosphere; Water vapor; Water vapour; 资料同化; forecast impact; 校验; calibration/validation; FY-3 satellite series; assimilation; 风云三号系列卫星; 预报影响
• ISSN: 0256-1530; 1861-9533
• DOI: 10.1007/s00376-020-0207-3

This paper reviews the data quality and impact of observations from the FY-3 satellite series used operationally in the ECMWF system. This includes data from the passive microwave radiometers MWHS-1, MWHS-2 and MWRI, as well as observations from the radio occultation receiver GNOS. Evaluations against background equivalents show that the quality of the observations is broadly comparable to that of similar instruments on other polar-orbiting satellites, even though biases for the passive microwave observations can be somewhat larger and more complex for some channels. An observing system experiment shows that the FY-3 instruments jointly contribute significantly to the forecast skill in the ECMWF system. Positive impact of up to 2% is seen for most variables out to the day-2 forecasts over hemispheric scales, with significant benefits for total column water vapor or for temperature and wind in the stratosphere out to day 4.