A moisture analysis procedure utilizing surface and satellite data

Abstract

Four analyses have been produced by a moisture analysis procedure which uses satellite, precipitation and surface specific humidity data to augment the standard radiosonde observations (RAOB) of moisture: (1) using RAOB data only, (2) using RAOB data supplemented by data obtained from the surface observations of specific humidity, (3) using RAOB data supplemented only by satellite and precipitation data, and (4) employing all sources of data. Penn State University Mesoscale Model forecasts were performed to determine the effect of the high-resolution moisture analyses. For the data set used, supplementary satellite and rainfall data was found to improve the precipitation forecast more than surface humidity data and permitted the model to produce rain rates during the first four hours of the forecast that were 100% larger and more realistic than those produced without these data.