Evaluation of Diagnosed Fields in Model Operational Analyses during the CINDY2011-DYNAMO-AMIE Field Campaign

A primary component of the observing system in the CINDY2011-DYNAMO-AMIE field campaign was an enhanced atmospheric sounding network comprised of two sounding quadrilaterals, one north and one south of the equator over the central Indian Ocean. During the experiment a major effort was undertaken to ensure the real-time transmission of these data onto the GTS (Global Telecommunication System) for dissemination to the operational Numerical Weather Prediction Centers (ECMWF, NCEP, JMA, etc.). Preliminary estimates indicate that over 95% of the soundings from this network were successfully transmitted and used in their data assimilation systems. Because of the wide use of operational and reanalysis products (e.g., in process studies, initializing numerical simulations, construction of large-scale forcing datasets for CRMs, etc.), their validity will be examined by comparing a variety of basic and diagnosed fields from these products to similar analyses based solely on sounding observations. Particular attention will given to the vertical structures of diabatic heating from the Operational Analyses (OA), which are strongly influenced by cumulus parameterizations, a source of model infidelity. In addition, by comparing the budgets computed with these OA using their full high-spatial resolution to those where the OA is used only at the sounding locations, sampling errors in the diagnosed budgets can be estimated. This error analysis will consider the changing configuration of the sounding network due to the absence of observations during the port calls of the research vessels.