Preliminary Meteorological Results of a Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation Technique in Southern Italy

A four-dimensional data assimilation (FDDA) scheme based on a Newtonian relaxation (or “nudging”) was tested using observational asynoptic data collected at a coastal site in the Central Mediterranean peninsula of Calabria, southern Italy. The study is referred to an experimental campaign carried out in summer 2008. For this period a wind profiler, a sodar and two surface meteorological stations were considered. The collected measurements were used for the FDDA scheme, and the technique was incorporated into a tailored version of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). All instruments are installed and operated routinely at the experimental field of the CRATI-ISAC/CNR located at 600 m from the Tyrrhenian coastline. Several simulations were performed, and the results show that the assimilation of wind and/or temperature data, both throughout the simulation time (continuous FDDA) and for a 12 h time window (forecasting configuration), produces improvements of the model performance. Considering a whole single day, improvements are sub-stantial in the case of continuous FDDA while they are smaller in the case of forecasting configuration. En-hancements, during the first six hours of each run, are generally higher. The resulting meteorological fields are finalised as input into air quality and agro-meteorological models, for short-term predictions of renew-able energy production forecast, and for atmospheric model initialization.