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Water vapor isotopes for weather forecasting

 

Water isotopes refer to water molecules with heavier isotopes such as deuterium D and 18O than regular atoms (H and 16O). Water isotopes are useful tracers in the hydrological cycle due to the link to condensation and diabatic heating processes. We are exploring the impacts of assimilating high-density water vapor isotope data retrieved from the thermal nadir spectra IASI sensor to improve weather forecasting. We use an isotope-enabled atmospheric model and a data assimilation technique called ensemble Kalman filter in this study.

Ref: (Toride et al., 2021)

Improvements in atmospheric variables by the IASI isotope δD and water vapor q assimilation 
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