The Impact of Assimilating Winds Observed during a Tropical Cyclone on a Forecasting Model

The accurate and timely depiction of the state of severe weather is critical for enhancing forecaster situational awareness. This study attempted to develop a hurricane forecasting model with a warm-start run and investigated the impact of winds observed during a tropical cyclone on long-term lead times. The Hurricane Research System initialized with the Hurricane Local Analysis Prediction System (HRS/HLAPS) was applied to Hurricanes Katrina and Dennis (2005). The forecasting model used a warm-start run with 7% improved wind data and cloud initialization using the HLAPS. The simulated cyclones were more intense and realistic structures, although the performance varied slightly according to the lead time and cyclone characteristics. The results show that the tropical cyclone development (track and intensity) was significantly affected by initial forcing up to 6–12 h, as well as by the forcing of the limit condition after 6 h. The well-organized spiral bands of convective precipitations were also captured, particularly within the 6 h spin-up time due to vertical wind shear and water vapor trapped in the lower atmosphere. This study demonstrates that aircraft-observed winds and convective initialization can be useful for numerical modeling and operational forecasting.