Revised snow scheme including a diagnostic liquid water storage and a new density formulation
Revised ozone chemistry
Active assimilation of IASI humidity channels and consistent use of AIRS and IASI humidity channels.
Activate all-sky 4D-VAR assimilation of microwave imagers
Increase of the weight to GPS radio occultation data above 26 km, and use of the data up to 50 km
Various satellite-related modifications, including activation of version 9 of the radiative transfer software package RTTOV-9 (developed by NWP-SAF) and revised HIRS cloud detection
TL/AD longwave radiation (removal of the neural network), optimization of the non-linear code for simplified longwave radiation and optimization (NL, TL, AD) of the shortwave radiation scheme
Extend the domain of the wave model from 81 º to 90 º North
Use of ERA-interim analyses for the EFI reforecasts
Meteorological impact
Overall the new cycle is neutral in terms of verification scores for both hemispheres and the tropics.
Improvements to 2m temperature bias and slightly better performance for recent tropical cyclones in both position and intensity.
Synoptic performance is generally similar to current operations.
Impact on EFI from the change to using ERA-interim analyses for its reforecasts is not substantial.