CIMSS Hourly AMVs Used in U.S. Navy Model
In the week of 09 December 2010, the United States Navy Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) began operationally assimilating hourly Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) derived by the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) from MTSAT and GOES-West into their global data assimilation and modeling system.
CIMSS has been supplying the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Monterey with the hourly AMVs on an experimental basis for the past two years. A research collaboration between CIMSS and NRL demonstrated the positive impacts of the hourly assimilation on model forecasts in a series of experiments and case studies. The hourly AMV observation impacts were then put through a brief beta test trial with the FNMOC operational 4D variational data assimilation system, and deemed beneficial to forecast skill.
