Abstract: Upper-Ocean Temperature Observations Obtained during Tasked Hurricane Reconnaissance Missions: A Review of Impacts on Air-Sea Coupled Hurricane Model Predictions (2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting)

Upper-Ocean Temperature Observations Obtained during Tasked Hurricane Reconnaissance Missions: A Review of Impacts on Air-Sea Coupled Hurricane Model Predictions

Elizabeth Sanabia, US Naval Academy, Department of Oceanography, Annapolis, MD, United States, Steven R Jayne, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Peter G Black, Naval Research Lab Monterey, Monterey, CA, United States, Sue Chen, Naval Research Lab Monterey, Marine Meteorology, Monterey, CA, United States and James A Cummings, Naval Research Lab, Monterey, CA, United States

Abstract:

The AXBT Demonstration Project was conceived with the objective of improving hurricane forecast accuracy by assimilating ocean observations from beneath tropical cyclones into coupled numerical models in near real time. To that end, observations of upper-ocean temperature have been collected beneath 18 named storms during 85 AFRC WC-130J tropical cyclone reconnaissance missions over the past 5 hurricane seasons. The data have been assimilated into both ocean and coupled numerical models on a near real-time basis, and improvements quantified through several data denial, ocean 3DVAR adjoint, and OSSE studies. Accomplishments during the 2015 season, including progress toward the primary objective by various modeling groups, will be examined. Upgrades to equipment, deployment strategies, and data processing techniques will also be discussed.

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