Assimilation of Tropical Cyclone Track and Wind Radius Data with an Ensemble Kalman Filter

Improving tropical cyclone (TC) forecasts is one of the most important issues in meteorology, but TC intensity forecasting is a challenging task. Because the lack of observations near TCs usually results in degraded accuracy of the initial fields, utilizing TC advisory data in data assimilation typically has started with an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). In this study, TC minimum sea level pressure (MSLP) and position information were directly assimilated using the EnKF, and the impacts of these observations were investigated by comparing different assimilation strategies. Another experiment with TC wind radius data was carried out to examine the influence of TC shape parameters. Sensitivity experiments indicated that the direct assimilation of TC MSLP and position data yielded results that were superior to those based on conventional assimilation of TC MSLP as a standard surface pressure observation. Assimilation of TC radius data modified the outer circulation of TCs closer to observations. The impacts of these TC parameters were also evaluated by using the case of Typhoon Talas in 2011. The TC MSLP, position, and wind radius data led to improved TC track forecasts and therefore to improved precipitation forecasts. These results imply that initialization with these TC-related observations benefits TC forecasting, offering promise for the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters caused by TCs.