My PhD Work:

The Effect of Targeted Observations on the Prediction of Weather Systems

Supervisors:

Dr Suzanne Gray, Dr John Methven, Dr Ian Renfrew (UEA), Dr Richard Swinbank (Met Office)

Project Description:

This project was part of the NERC funded Greenland Flow Distortion Experiment , (GFDex) which is an International Polar Year project. Research into improving the predictability of weather forecasts is also one of the main aims of THORPEX , an ongoing WMO programme.

The GFDex field campaign was based in Keflavik, Iceland (64N,22W) from 19th February to 14th March 2007 and was one of the first field programmes of the 2007-09 IPY. The campaign used the Facility for Atmospheric Airborne Measurements (FAAM) BAE-146 aircraft to release dropsondes to sample the atmosphere to the south of Iceland and in the Denmark Strait. Dropsondes were released into areas predicted to be sensitive to small errors in the initial conditions, that would grow throughout the forecast. The data from these dropsondes was relayed onto the GTS in real-time, and used in the 12Z weather forecasts. This additional data should reduce the intial error in the forecast, thus improving the forecast downstream of the target region, over Europe. The impact of this additional 'targeted' data was assessed through hindcast studies, carried out with the help of the Met Office. Targeting experiments were also carried out during the Norwegian IPY-THORPEX field campaign in 2008.

Documents

Here are links to some documents I have written concerning the targeted observations component to GFDex.
Targeted Observations Report for Met Office and ECMWF
UEA Seminar 26/02/10
My PhD Thesis