Background error statistics in the Tropics: Structures and impact in a convective‐scale numerical weather prediction system

The background error covariance matrix plays a vital role in any data assimilation system. Proper specification, which is determined by the forecast system set‐up, is often required. Previous studies have investigated its relevance in various global and regional numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems; however, very few have explored it in tropical NWP systems. Here, we present and evaluate the structures of the background error covariance...