TY - RPRT AU - Alan Geer AU - Peter Bauer AU - S.J. English AB - A better assimilation of satellite radiances in cloudy and precipitating areas should help improve forecasts by (i) providing greater coverage of temperature and humidity in meteorologically active areas and (ii) directly constraining cloud and precipitation. Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit A (AMSU-A) is used for sensing atmospheric temperature and is one of the most important sensors in the global observing system, yet at ECMWF, except for a simple cloud-screening, it is still assimilated without considering the effect of cloud or precipitation. There may be benefits in using the ‘all-sky' approach, which is already operational for microwave imagers. To extend this to AMSU-A requires a model for observation error that prescribes larger errors in cloudy and precipitating regions than in clear skies, and larger errors at nadir where the weighting function sees deepest into the atmosphere. BT - EUMETSAT/ECMWF Fellowship Programme Research Reports C1 - Research CY - Shinfield Park, Reading DA - 04/2012 LA - eng M1 - 24 N1 - Also published as ECMWF Technical Memorandum 670 N2 - A better assimilation of satellite radiances in cloudy and precipitating areas should help improve forecasts by (i) providing greater coverage of temperature and humidity in meteorologically active areas and (ii) directly constraining cloud and precipitation. Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit A (AMSU-A) is used for sensing atmospheric temperature and is one of the most important sensors in the global observing system, yet at ECMWF, except for a simple cloud-screening, it is still assimilated without considering the effect of cloud or precipitation. There may be benefits in using the ‘all-sky' approach, which is already operational for microwave imagers. To extend this to AMSU-A requires a model for observation error that prescribes larger errors in cloudy and precipitating regions than in clear skies, and larger errors at nadir where the weighting function sees deepest into the atmosphere. PB - ECMWF PP - Shinfield Park, Reading PY - 2012 EP - 41 T2 - EUMETSAT/ECMWF Fellowship Programme Research Reports T3 - EUMETSAT/ECMWF Fellowship Programme TI - Assimilating AMSU-A temperature sounding channels in the presence of cloud and precipitation UR - https://www.ecmwf.int/node/9513 ER -