The Intensity and Structure Changes of Hurricane Charley (2004) During its Landfall: A Study with Radar Data Assimilation

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are one of the destructive nature forces due to the extreme precipitation and wind speeds. Improving the forecast of TCs, especially the landfalling TCs, is greatly important in making effective public warnings. This study assimilates the ground-based NEXRAD observations to examine the influence of radar observations on the predictions of Hurricane Charley (2004) near and during its landfall. The mesoscale community Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and its four-dimensional variational data assimilation system are utilized to conduct a series of numerical simulation and data assimilation experiments. Both radar radial velocity and reflectivity data are assimilated. Numerical simulation results are diagnosed to understand the effects of dynamic and thermodynamic processes as well as the atmospheric boundary layer on the track, intensity and structure changes of Hurricane Charley during its landfall. Detailed results will be presented during the meeting.