VIRTUAL OBSERVATION SIMULATION AND OSSE FOR EVALUATION OF OBSERVATION PERFORMANCE AND RAINFALL PREDICTION ACCURACY BY ASSIMILATING SMALL MICROWAVE SATELLITE CONSTELLATION

Abstract

 Small satellite constellation (SSC) technology has been evolving rapidly and a project of SSC which carries passive microwave (PM) sensors for earth observation is now being planned. Toward application of such new technology to hydrometeorology in near future, this study proposes a new validation method of local- and river-basin-scale rainfall prediction performance assimilating virtual but realistic SSC-PM measurements by combining virtual observation simulation and observing system simulation experiment (OSSE). Results of application of the proposed method showed that frequent assimilation of SSC-PM observations has a potential to remarkably improve short-term rainfall prediction. Also, changes in frequency and time step of observations depending on SSC structure have a large impact on rainfall prediction accuracy.