Cloud field assimilation using simulated Triana satellite data Original Research Article

In the next few years, NASA plans to launch satellite Triana, a deep space Earth observatory that will take a full-disk view of the sunlit side of the Earth. Triana carries two instruments, EPIC, which will deliver Science products such as total precipitable water, cloud height, aerosol index, total ozone, and a global visible cloud field image, and NISTAR, which obtains precise radiometry integrated over the entire sunlit disk. Using a contemporary atmospheric model (namely the Eta model), we have started a project whose goal is to simulate some of the Triana observations and to assess the impact of Triana data for weather and climate predictions. In this paper, we report on the results of numerical experiments assimilating temperature profiles with and without cloud liquid water for inferring tropical and extra-tropical atmospheric states. We also assess the impact of initializing cloud liquid water for short term forecasts and data assimilation cycles.