OBJECTIVE METHODS OF ANALYZING AND FORECASTING TROPICAL WEATHER.
Abstract
The report describes objective methods of analyzing and forecasting tropical weather. A number of computer programs are applied to Caribbean data to test different techniques and to provide a basis for studying methods of incorporating satellite cloud-data into analyses of the wind field. The programs include a grid-point analysis technique, a procedure for computing a stream function and velocity potential from winds using the alternating-direction implicit-relaxation method, a computation of heights that conform to winds according to the balance equation, and a direct technique of altering wind components to fit divergence and vorticity patterns deduced from satellite cloud photographs. Also, preliminary forecasts are made using a barotropic model. Cloud photographs from the Nimbus II satellite do not reveal any simple relationships between cloud organization and the computed patterns of concurrent divergence and vorticity beyond a general tendency for appreciable cloud masses to be associated with larger than average cyclonic relative vorticity. Relationships of clouds to computed divergence appear to be random. Probably the uncertainties of analysis due to the sparse and uneven distribution of radiosonde stations in the Caribbean contributes significantly to the apparent lack of a physically meaningful connection. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0828092
Entities
People
- Robert L. Mancuso
- Roy M. Endlich
- William Viezee
Organizations
- SRI International