Accuracy of diagnostic heat and moisture budgets using SESAME-79 field data as revealed by observing system simulation experiments
Observing system simulation experiments are used to investigate the accuracy of diagnostic heat and moisture budgets which employ the AVE-SESAME 1979 data. The time-including, four-dimensional data set of a mesoscale model is used to simulate rawinsonde observations from AVE-SESAME 1979. The 5 C/day (heat budget) and 2 g/kg per day (moisture budget) magnitudes of error obtained indicate difficulties in the diagnosis of the heating rate in weak convective systems. The influences exerted by observational frequency, objective analysis, observational density, vertical interpolation, and observational errors on the budget are also studied, and it is found that the temporal and spatial resolution of the SESAME regional network is marginal for diagnosing convective effects on a horizontal time scale of 550 x 550 km.