HD photo
Overview
Interface observations refer to observations that are sensitive to multiple Earth system components, including atmosphere, land, sea ice, snow, and the ocean. They are key for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and reanalysis. In a coupled data assimilation framework, used in Earth system approaches, satellite-sensed interface observations have the unique potential to simultaneously constrain the various Earth system components, providing consistent initial and boundary conditions to Earth system prediction models.
Examples of interface observations are window channels from passive microwave or infrared instruments, scatterometers, altimeters, cloud and aerosol-cleared visible observations. These observations are currently under-exploited in NWP due to the challenges that constraining simultaneously the atmosphere and the surface (ocean/land) poses. While some of these observations are used in the atmospheric analysis, information on other Earth System components tends not to be utilised. Assimilation of such observations in a coupled system has the potential to unlock the previously discarded surface information while at the same time improving their use for the atmospheric analysis. Given that full exploitation of the observing system to improve NWP is at the heart of the mission of the EUMETSAT NWP-SAF, the focus workshop was very relevant to capture recent progress and the state of the art in this area, identify key issues and limitations, and discuss avenues for further developments.
Workshop goals
The goals of this workshop were to:
- provide an overview of the various interface observations which are available to the NWP community as well as of the forward models which are being developed or are already in use to exploit this type of observations,
- assess the state of the art on the use of interface observations both in retrievals and in coupled data assimilation systems and
- understand the direction in which the scientific community is taking this important and complex problem.
Working groups discussed the current state of the art and provided recommendations for future developments. The output of the workshop will be shared with the community in the form of working group reports, identifying key recommendations for NWP centres.