Impact of analysis-time tuning on the performance of the DRP-4DVar approach

In this study we extend the dimension-reduced projection-four dimensional variational data assimilation (DRP-4DVar) approach to allow the analysis time to be tunable, so that the intervals between analysis time and observation times can be shortened. Due to the limits of the perfect-model assumption and the tangent-linear hypothesis, the analysis-time tuning is expected to have the potential to further improve analyses and forecasts. Various sensitivity experiments using the Lorenz-96 model are conducted to test the impact of analysis-time tuning on the performance of the new approach under perfect and imperfect model scenarios, respectively. Comparing three DRP-4DVar schemes having the analysis time at the start, middle, and end of the assimilation window, respectively, it is found that the scheme with the analysis time in the middle of the window outperforms the others, on the whole. Moreover, the advantage of this scheme is more pronounced when a longer assimilation window is adopted or more observations are assimilated.