9.2    A Radar Data Assimilation Experiment for COPS IOP 10 with the WRF 3DVAR System in a Rapid Update Cycle Configuration

Schwitalla, Thomas,  Hans-Stefan Bauer and Volker Wulfmeyer, Institute of Physics and Meteorology, University of Hohenheim, Germany

On July 23, 2007 an interesting convective situation developed during the COPS intensive observation period 10 developed. A large scale trough developed over UK causing moderate  precipitation of up to 50mm/12h over France.

In this study, we utilize the WRF model and its 3DVAR in a European domain with 3.6 km horizontal resolution without a parameterization of convection forced by ECMWF forecast data.

Besides conventional observations including GPS-ZTD data ,  3D volume radar data observations are available for France and the western part of Germany simultaneously.  These data are assimilated in a RUC over a 18h period to investigate the influence of assimilating radar radial velocities and reflectivities on a short range forecast.  Additionally the influence of applying a DFI within this RUC is investigated.