Impact of GPS Radio Occultation Refractivity Soundings on a Simulation of Typhoon Bilis (2006) upon Landfall

Abstract

Typhoon Bilis which struck Taiwan in July 2006 was chosen to assess the potential impact of GPS radio occultation (RO) refractivity soundings on numerical simulation using the WRF model. We found that this case elucidates the impact of the limited GPS RO soundings on typhoon prediction due to their favorable locations. In addition, on top of available precipitable water (PW) and near-surface wind speed from SSM/I data, we have also explored their combined impacts on model prediction.

Keywords

• FORMOSAT-3
• GPS radio occultation refractivity
• Data assimilation