Parallel suite from July 2005 until January 2006

This parallel suite was tested from July 2005 to January 2006. It became operational on January 23rd, 2006.

Summary of the GMAP/COMPAS documentation on the E-suite Of November 2005-January 2006 “new clim files”, CY29T2_op2, GCO, January 19, 2006. translated into English by C. Fischer, February 5, 2006.

Overview of the E-suite :
 transmission, coupling and computational domain climatological (clim) files have all been re-built, for all MF models as well as all known domains from partner institutes. New geometry modules (JDG) and new file “cadre” specifications have been applied (new “cadres” are only accessible to centres who run CY26T1 or more). Several bugfixes have been taken into account in e923 (see appendix).
 on Diapason, QuikSCAT, AQUA (AIRS and AMSU-A/B), GEOWIND extraction processes have been modified. This change concerns the BUFR format extraction and the “oulan” extraction tool. On VPP, the operational data handling of these observations has been adapted accordingly. QuikSCAT pre-treatment is now performed on VPP.
 the original E-suite (August 2005) contained Lopez microphysics and 46 levels. These have been discarded end of November.
 AIRS monitoring has been suspended in production (Arpège short cut-off and long range production forecasts). This change implies a different “bator_map” procedure between assimilation (long cut-off extraction for the assimilation cycle) and production.
 new radiosonde bias correction (inspired from ECMWF), in order to counter the problem with temperature and geopotential in the stratosphere due to the radiation scheme.
 new bias correction coefficients for SEVIRI data
 optimisations for memory usage
 update of the most frequently used BDM flags

More details :

• A description of the operational changes for climatological files was prepared by Françoise Taillefer (in French) et translated by Claude (into English):
  • description of the changes in the code
  • new data
  • new databases for orography
  • new surface fields
  • expected impact
• The GMAP/OBS team also proposes a description of its modifications :
  • technical modifications : changes in Oulan (explanations in Frank Guillaume memo), QuikSCAT obs treatment on the supercomputer
  • scientifical modifications : temperature bias, SATOB wind assimilation, bug corrections, ...