Impacts of Observation Forward Operator on Infrared Radiance Data Assimilation with Fine Model Resolutions

All-sky radiance assimilation often has non-Gaussian observation error distributions, which can be exacerbated by high model spatial resolutions due to better resolved nonlinear physical processes. For ensemble Kalman filters, observation ensemble perturbations can be approximated by linearized observation operator (LinHx) that uses the observation operator Jacobian of ensemble mean rather than full observation operator (FullHx). The impact of observation operator on infrared radiance data assimilation is examined here by assimilating synthetic radiance observations from channel 1025 of GIIRS with increased model spatial resolutions from 7.5 km to 300 m. A tropical cyclone is used, while the findings are expected to be generally applied. Compared to FullHx, LinHx provides larger magnitudes of correlations and stronger corrections around observation locations, especially when all-sky radiances are assimilated at fine model resolutions. For assimilating clear-sky radiances with increasing model resolutions, LinHx has smaller errors and improved vortex intensity and structure than FullHx. But when all-sky radiances are assimilated, FullHx has advantages over LinHx. Thus for regimes with more linearity, LinHx provides stronger correlations and imposes more corrections than FullHx; but for regimes with more nonlinearity, LinHx provides detrimental non-Gaussian prior error distributions in observation space, unrealistic correlations and overestimated corrections, compared to FullHx.