Improvement of the Surface Pressure Operator in GRAPES and Its Application in Precipitation Forecasting in South China

In this study we investigated the problems involved in assimilating surface pressure in the current global and regional assimilation and prediction system, GRAPES. A new scheme of assimilating surface pressure was proposed, including a new interpolation scheme and a refreshed background covariance. The new scheme takes account of the differences between station elevation and model topography, and it especially deals with stations located at elevations below that of the first model level. Contrast experiments were conducted using both the original and the new assimilation schemes. The influence of the new interpolation scheme and the updated background covariance were investigated. Our results show that the new interpolation scheme utilized more observations and improved the quality of the mass analysis. The background covariance was refreshed using statistics resulting from the technique proposed by Parrish and Derber in 1992. Experiments show that the updated vertical covariance may have a positive influence on the analysis at higher levels of the atmosphere when assimilating surface pressure. This influence may be more significant if the quality of the background field at high levels is poor. A series of assimilation experiments were performed to test the validity of the new scheme. The corresponding simulation experiments were conducted using the analysis of both schemes as initial conditions. The results indicated that the new scheme leads to better forecasting of sea level pressure and precipitation in South China, especially the forecast of moderate and heavy rain.