Workshop: Observational campaigns for better weather forecasts

Observation-model difference drive the development of parametrizations. Here we will show how the combination of aircraft, satellite and ground based observations as well as theoretical and seamless modelling has led to model improvements in the Met Office Unified Model. Examples to be discussed will include i) the Southern Ocean sea surface temperature bias that draws on a rich combination of field work, case studies and theoretical underpinning, ii) the global model representation of light rain that tries to capture the broad range of the rain drop distribution for an operational single moment representation based on extensive aircraft observations, iii) a multi modal pdf approach for cloud fraction tested against ARM site data and iv) the impact of an improved land surface representation from airborne operations.