Abstract
This paper presents a detailed description of integration, quality assurance procedure, and usage of global aircraft observations for China’s first generation global atmospheric reanalysis (CRA) product (1979–2018). An integration method named “classified integration” is developed. Aircraft observations from nine different sources are integrated into the Integrated Global Meteorological Observation Archive from Aircraft (IGMOAA), a new dataset from the National Meteorological Information Center (NMIC) of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). IGMOAA consists of global aircraft temperature, wind, and humidity data from the surface to 100 hPa, extending from 1973 to the present. Compared with observations assimilated in the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) of NCEP, the observation number of IGMOAA increased by 12.9% between 2010 and 2014, mainly as a result of adding more Chinese Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) data. Complex quality control procedures for aircraft observations of NCEP are applied to detect data errors. Observations are compared with ERA-Interim reanalysis from 1979 to 2018 to investigate data quality of different types and aircraft, and subsequently to develop the blacklists for CRA. IGMOAA data have been assimilated in CRA in 2018 and are real-time updated at the CMA Data-as-a-Service (CMADaaS) platform. For CRA, the fits to observations improve over time. From 1994 to 2018, root-mean-square error (RMSE) of observations relative to CRA background decreases from 1.8 to 1.0°C for temperature above 300 hPa, and from 4.5 to 3 m s−1 for zonal wind. The RMSE for humidity appears to exhibit an apparent seasonal variation with larger errors in summer and smaller ones in winter.
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Abbreviations
- ACARS:
-
Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System
- ACQC:
-
Complex Quality Control for Aircraft observations
- AIREP:
-
aircraft report
- AMC:
-
Aviation Meteorological Center
- AMDAR:
-
Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay
- CEDA:
-
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis
- CFSR:
-
Climate Forecast System Reanalysis
- CMA:
-
China Meteorological Administration
- CMADaaS:
-
CMA Data-as-a-Service
- CRA:
-
China’s first generation of a 40-yr global atmospheric reanalysis product
- ECMWF:
-
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
- ERA-15:
-
The 15-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis
- ERA-Interim:
-
ECMWF’s interim reanalysis
- ETAC:
-
Environmental Technical Applications Center
- FGGE:
-
First GARP Global Experiment
- FNL:
-
Final Operational Global Analysis
- GARP:
-
Global Atmospheric Research Program
- GDAS:
-
Global Data Assimilation System
- GSI:
-
Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation
- GTS:
-
Global Telecommunication System
- IGMOAA:
-
Integrated Global Meteorological Observation Archive from Aircraft
- JMA:
-
Japan Meteorological Agency
- MARS:
-
Meteorological Archive and Retrieval System
- MDCRS:
-
Meteorological Data Communications and Reporting System
- MERRA:
-
Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications
- NCAR:
-
National Center for Atmospheric Research
- NCDC:
-
National Climatic Data Center
- NCEI:
-
National Centers for Environmental Information
- NCEP:
-
National Centers for Environmental Prediction
- NESDIS:
-
National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
- NMC:
-
National Meteorological Center
- NMIC:
-
National Meteorological Information Center
- NUS-AMDAR:
-
AMDAR data from outside the U.S.
- NWP:
-
numerical weather prediction
- NWS:
-
National Weather Service
- OMA:
-
observation minus analysis of CRA
- OMERA:
-
observation minus ERA-Interim reanalysis
- PALT:
-
pressure altitude
- PIREP:
-
pilot report
- POF:
-
phase of flight
- PS:
-
priority score
- QA:
-
quality assurance
- QC:
-
quality control
- RDA:
-
Research Data Archive
- RMSE:
-
root-mean-square error
- TAC:
-
Traditional Alphanumeric Codes
- TAMDAR:
-
Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting
- TS:
-
threshold
- TWERLE:
-
Tropical Wind, Energy Conversion, and Reference Level Experiment
- U.S.:
-
United States
- VarBC:
-
variational bias correction
- WIS:
-
WMO Information System
- WMO:
-
World Meteorological Organization
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Tao Zhang and Hui Jiang for their assistance in collection of the historical aircraft observations, and the agencies for providing the source data for IGMOAA.
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Supported by the National Innovation Project for Meteorological Science and Technology (CMAGGTD003-5), China Meteorological Administration Special Public Welfare Research Fund (GYHY201506002), and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC1501801).
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Liao, J., Wang, H., Zhou, Z. et al. Integration, Quality Assurance, and Usage of Global Aircraft Observations in CRA. J Meteorol Res 35, 1–16 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-021-0093-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-021-0093-3