Development of a Nowcasting Method for Three-Dimensional Meteorological Data: Preliminary Report

Abstract : A nowcasting method for three-dimensional meteorological fields has been developed. Nowcasting is a method of diagnosing the current weather situation, and in this study is defined as an objective analysis of meterological parameters that have been currently observed. The Penn State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research (CAR) Mesoscale Model Version 5 (MM5) was utilized to obtain background data to combine with surface and upper-air observation data. In this method, surface observations and the MM5 surface forecast/V data are composed using the successive correction method, followed by a similar composition of the upper-air sounding data and the MM5 forecast data using the same scheme. After these two steps, the similarity theory formulae, MARIAH, is used to combine surface data fields with upper-air data fields. The method was applied to meteorological fields over the complex terrain centered at Salt Lake City, Utah.