AIRMASSES, STREAMLINES, AND THE BOREAL FOREST. APPENDIX: NON-LINEAR PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR THE PARTIAL COLLECTIVE MODEL OF AIRMASS ANALYSIS.
Abstract
The July airmass frequency distribution over Canada is analyzed by daily computation of trajectories from grid intersections back to source regions. A zone of rapid transition from Arctic Air dominance to Pacific Air dominance is found to lie along the northern border of the boreal forest, suggesting that the summer airmass distribution might be an important causal factor for the distribution of forest versus tundra. An independent analysis of July airmass frequency distribution by resolution of the daily maximum temperature frequency distribution into partial collectives (component normal distributions) yields results very similar to the trajectory analysis but with more detail. This analysis suggests that airmass dominance might be of importance to other biotic regions as well as the boreal forest and tundra. A final analysis using monthly resultant wind streamlines near the surface indicates that mean airstreams and confluences between airstreams define climatic regions with a distinctive annual march of airstream (and in the mean, airmass) dominance. These regions show a clear congruence with several major biotic regions. These analyses strongly suggest that the boreal forest occupies the region between the mean (or modal) southern boundary of Arctic Air in winter and the mean southern boundary of Arctic Air in summer. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0634095
Entities
People
- Donald R. Johnson
- Reid A. Bryson
Organizations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison