Assessing the accuracy of a linearized observation operator for assimilation of radio occultation data: Case simulations with a high-resolution weather model

Assimilation into numerical weather models of the refractivity, Abel-retrieved from radio occultations, as the local refractivity at ray tangent point may result in large errors in the presence of strong horizontal gradients (atmospheric fronts, strong convection). To reduce these errors, other authors suggested modeling the Abel-retrieved refractivity as a nonlocal linear function of the 3D refractivity, which can be used as a linear observation operator for assimiliation. The authors of this study introduce their approach for the nonlocal linear observation operator, which consists of modeling the excess phase path, calculated along certain trajectories below the top of an atmospheric model. In this study (not aimed at development of an observation operator for any specific atmospheric model), both approaches are validated by assessing the accuracy of both linearized observation operators by numerical simulations with the high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and comparing them to the accuracy of interpretation of the Abel-retrieved refractivity as local. Improvement of the accuracy of about an order of magnitude is found with the nonlocal refractivity and further improvement is found with the excess phase path. The effect of horizontal resolution of an atmospheric model on the accuracy of modeling local and nonlocal linear observables is also investigated, and it is demonstrated that the nonlocal linear modeling of radio occultation observables is especially important for weather prediction models with sufficiently high horizontal resolution, grid size <100 km (mesoscale models).