Characteristics and performance of vertical winds as observed by the radar wind profiler network of China

Abstract. Vertical wind profiles are the foundation for numerical weather prediction systems research. Large-scale vertical wind data have been previously documented from network observations in several countries, but the nationwide vertical wind observations are poorly understood in China. In this study, the salient characteristics and performance of vertical winds as observed by the radar wind profiler network of China was investigated, which consists of more than 100 stations instrumented with 1290-MHz Doppler radar designed primarily for measuring vertical-resolved winds. This network has good spatial coverage, with denser sites in coastal areas. The vertical wind profiles observed by this network can provide the horizontal wind direction, horizontal wind speed, and vertical wind speed for every 120 m interval within the height of 0 to 3 km. The availability of the radar wind profiler network has been investigated in terms of effective detection height, data acquisition rate, data confidence, and data accuracy. Further comparison analysis with reanalysis data indicated that the observation data at 89 stations are recommended, and 17 stations are unrecommended. The vertical wind profiles can serve as important input dataset assimilated into numerical weather prediction system at both regional and global scales.