The impacts of assimilating Aeolus horizontal line-of-sight winds on numerical predictions of Hurricane Ida (2021) and a mesoscale convective system over the Atlantic Ocean

Feng, Chengfeng; Pu, Zhaoxia

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2691-2023

Articles | Volume 16, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2691-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Aeolus data and their application (AMT/ACP/WCD inter-journal...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2691-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 10

Research article

|

01 Jun 2023

Research article |

| 01 Jun 2023

The impacts of assimilating Aeolus horizontal line-of-sight winds on numerical predictions of Hurricane Ida (2021) and a mesoscale convective system over the Atlantic Ocean

Chengfeng Feng and Zhaoxia Pu

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Final revised paper (published on 01 Jun 2023)
Preprint (discussion started on 05 Jan 2023)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on amt-2022-341', Anonymous Referee #1, 10 Feb 2023

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-341/amt-2022-341-RC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-RC1
- CC2: 'Reply on RC1', Zhaoxia Pu, 11 Feb 2023
  
  We appreciate the reviewer for the helpful comments. We plan to address all your comments in the revision.
  
  1. Yes. Before finalizing the data assimilation configuration for experiments, we conducted sensitivity studies with various horizontal (55km, 110 km, and 220km) and vertical localization (3, 1.5, 6) scales. We will add a paragraph to summarize the sensitivity results in the revised manuscript.
  
  2. Thank you for pointing this out. We will check all units when revising the paper.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-CC2
- CC3:
  'Reply on RC1', Zhaoxia Pu, 22 Feb 2023
  
  Following the previous response. We now attach the revised manuscript (with tracked changes) here.
  1. The sensitivity study results with horizontal and vertical localization scales have been added.
  2. Units in the manuscript have been checked and corrected.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-CC3
  - RC2: 'Reply on CC3', Anonymous Referee #1, 24 Feb 2023
    
    I recommend to accept the manuscript in the current form.
    
    Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-RC2
    
    AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Chengfeng Feng, 10 Mar 2023
    
    Thanks for your recommendation.
    
    Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-AC2
  - AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Chengfeng Feng, 10 Mar 2023
    
    Thanks for your time and helpful comments. I do not have further responses to your comments or revisions of our manuscript.
    
    Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-AC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Chengfeng Feng, 10 Mar 2023
  
  Thanks for your time and helpful comments. I do not have further responses to your comments or revisions of our manuscript.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-AC1
RC3:
'Comment on amt-2022-341', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 Mar 2023

General comments:
The manuscript describes the impact of Aeolus observations on the forecast of Hurricane Ida (2021) and a mesoscale convective system that occurred during NASA’s CPEX-AW field campaign. The authors claim that the novelty of this investigation is that it evaluates the potential impact of the “near-real-time” assimilation of this data set. As mentioned in the paper, previous work has focused on observing system experiments (OSEs). As a matter of fact, OSEs mimic near-real-time impacts as they use observations that were available at the time of the experiment. Thus, I don’t understand what the limitations of earlier investigations are. In fact, these earlier studies used all the observations that were available for assimilation – not just conventional data.
The findings of this study are limited to one single hurricane and one single mesoscale system, which makes it impossible to draw any general conclusions. Therefore, the evaluation of the impact of Aeolus is over-emphasized. In addition, some of the technical elements are not well described. An example are the observations errors. Those are critical in data assimilation as reported in previous Aeolus data impact studies. The paper doesn’t show any statistics of background/analysis departures either that are critical to evaluate the behavior of the assimilation algorithms used here.
More detailed comments:
L74: What is the meaning of near-real-time HLOS here – and what is different from the methodology used in previous studies (OSEs)? What is new in this study since only focuses on one single hurricane?
L99: Is the assimilated done in the parent domain, the inner domain or both?
Fig.2: Are the Aeolus values observations or background simulations? Also, is the y-axis the instrument error or the observation error? It is not clear to this reviewer how the observation errors are estimated.
In a real-time environment, all available observations would be assimilated – not just conventional data. Why is it not done here? Are the reconnaissance data been assimilated?

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-RC3
- CC4:
  'Reply on RC3', Zhaoxia Pu, 05 Mar 2023
  
  Thank you fo rthe review. We attach here the response to your review comments and annotated revision of the manuscript in a pdf file. Please have a review. Best regards,
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-CC4
  - AC3: 'Reply on RC3', Chengfeng Feng, 10 Mar 2023
    
    Thank you for your careful review and helpful comments, which helps us improve our manuscript's quality. I do not have any other response to your comments, and do not make other changes to our manuscript.
    
    Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-AC3
- AC3: 'Reply on RC3', Chengfeng Feng, 10 Mar 2023
  
  Thank you for your careful review and helpful comments, which helps us improve our manuscript's quality. I do not have any other response to your comments, and do not make other changes to our manuscript.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-341-AC3

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Chengfeng Feng on behalf of the Authors (10 Mar 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (13 Mar 2023) by Ad Stoffelen

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (14 Mar 2023)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (15 Apr 2023)

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (15 Apr 2023) by Ad Stoffelen

AR by Chengfeng Feng on behalf of the Authors (22 Apr 2023) Manuscript

Short summary

This study demonstrates the positive impacts of assimilating Aeolus Mie-cloudy and Rayleigh-clear near-real-time horizontal line-of-sight winds on the analysis and forecasts of Hurricane Ida (2021) and a mesoscale convective system associated with an African easterly wave using the mesoscale community Weather Research and Forecasting model and the NCEP Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation-based three-dimensional ensemble-variational hybrid data assimilation system.

The impacts of assimilating Aeolus horizontal line-of-sight winds on numerical predictions of Hurricane Ida (2021) and a mesoscale convective system over the Atlantic Ocean

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Interactive discussion

Peer review completion

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection