Retrospective analysis of regional climate: The German reanalysis project - potential of remote sensing observations

This contribution presents an overview and first results of the recently started German Reanalysis Project. The overall vision of the project is to develop a self-consistent assessment and analysis of regional climate in Germany and Central Europe over the past decades using the operational NWP model COSMO from the German Weather Service (DWD). An important part of the project includes the extensive validation and quality control of the reanalysis product. Therefore, data from various ground-based observational networks are used as well as satellite observations. In order to compare the reanalysis output with microwave observations in the observational space, an active and passive microwave forward operator has been developed and applied to the first reanalysis test month. First results of an analysis with special focus on the influence of the latent heat nudging scheme on water cycle and cloud structure are presented.