Articles | Volume 4, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-249-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-249-2023
Research article
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28 Mar 2023
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 28 Mar 2023

Investigation of links between dynamical scenarios and particularly high impact of Aeolus on numerical weather prediction (NWP) forecasts

Anne Martin, Martin Weissmann, and Alexander Cress

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1150', Erland Kallen, 15 Nov 2022
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1150', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Dec 2022

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
AR by Anne Martin on behalf of the Authors (09 Jan 2023)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (09 Jan 2023) by Ad Stoffelen
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (12 Jan 2023)
RR by Erland Kallen (17 Jan 2023)
ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (17 Feb 2023) by Ad Stoffelen
AR by Anne Martin on behalf of the Authors (07 Mar 2023)  Manuscript 
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Executive editor
Numerical weather prediction depends essentially on high-quality upper-air wind observations to constrain the initial conditions. This study by Martin et al. investigates the impact of spaceborne Doppler wind lidar measurements from the Aeolus mission on forecast quality of the operational global forecasting system with ICON at Deutscher Wetterdienst. An observing system experiment shows an overall beneficial impact, and the authors go one important step further and present illustrative examples how events with strong forecast quality improvements can be related to specific dynamical phenomena such as ENSO and the extratropical transition of tropical cyclones.
Short summary
Global wind profiles from the Aeolus satellite mission are an important recent substitute for the Global Observing System, showing an overall positive impact on numerical weather prediction forecasts. This study highlights atmospheric dynamic phenomena constituting pathways for significant improvement of Aeolus for future studies, including large-scale tropical circulation systems and the interaction of tropical cyclones undergoing an extratropical transition with the midlatitude waveguide.