The Impact of Aerosols on Satellite Radiance Data Assimilation Using NCEP Global Data Assimilation System

Aerosol radiative effects have been studied extensively by climate and weather research communities. However, aerosol impacts on radiance in the context of data assimilation (DA) have received little research attention. In this study, we investigated the aerosol impacts on the assimilation of satellite radiances by incorporating time-varying three-dimensional aerosol distributions into the radiance observation operator. A series of DA experiments was conducted for August 2017. We assessed the aerosol impacts on the simulated brightness temperatures (BTs), bias correction and quality control (QC) algorithms for the assimilated infrared sensors, and analyzed temperature fields. We found that taking the aerosols into account reduces simulated BT in thermal window channels (8 to 13 μm) by up to 4 K over dust-dominant regions. The cooler simulated BTs result in more positive first-guess departures, produce more negative biases, and alter the QC checks about 20%/40% of total/assimilated observations at the wavelength of 10.39 μm. As a result, assimilating aerosol-affected BTs produces a warmer analyzed lower atmosphere and sea surface temperature which have better agreement with measurements over the trans-Atlantic region.