Greg Hakim

An ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) based on the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to generate ensemble analyses and forecasts for the extratropical transition (ET) events associated with Typhoons Tokage (2004) and Nabi (2005). Ensemble sensitivity analysis is then used to evaluate the relationship between forecast errors and initial condition errors at the onset of transition, and to objectively determine the observations having the largest impact on forecasts of these storms.

Observations from rawinsondes, surface stations, aircraft, cloud winds and cyclone best-track position are assimilated every six hours for a period before, during and after transition. Ensemble forecasts initialized at the onset of transition exhibit skill similar to the operational Global Forecast System (GFS) forecast and to a WRF forecast initialized from the GFS analysis. WRF ensemble forecasts of Tokage (Nabi) are characterized by relatively large (small) ensemble variance and greater (smaller) sensitivity to the initial conditions. In both cases, the 48-hour cyclone minimum sea-level pressure forecast and the RMS error in sea-level pressure are most sensitive to the TC position and to mid-latitude troughs that interact with the tropical cyclone during ET.

Diagnostic perturbations added to the initial conditions based on ensemble sensitivity reduce the error in the storm minimum sea-level pressure forecast by 50%. Observation impact calculations indicate that assimilating approximately 40 observations in regions of greatest initial condition sensitivity produces a large, statistically significant impact on the 48-hour cyclone minimum sea-level pressure forecast. For the Tokage forecast, assimilating the single highest impact observation, an upper-tropospheric zonal wind observation from a Mongolian rawinsonde, yields 48-hour forecast perturbations in excess of 10 hPa and 60 m in sea-level pressure and 500 hPa height, respectively.