Earth Radii Used in Numerical Weather Models

Abstract

In the development of numerical atmospheric models, many simplifying assumptions are made. One of the simplifying assumptions is that the Earth can be represented as a sphere. This assumption greatly simplifies the complexity of the resulting equation set that needs to be solved and makes them more tractable. It also reduces the computational cost. The Synthetic Environmental Data Representation and Interface Specification (SEDRIS) Spatial Reference Model (SRM), ISO/IEC 18026, defines a conceptual model and the methodologies that allow the description, and transformation or conversion, of geometric properties within or among spatial reference frames. This paper serves to document the values used for the Earth's radius by several operational numerical atmospheric models for use in the SRM.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 26, 2005
Accession Number
ADA441230

Entities

People

  • Louis A. Hembree

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Climate
  • Conversion
  • Department Of Defense
  • Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Latitude
  • Marine Meteorology
  • Meteorology
  • Military Research
  • Orientation (Direction)
  • Radiative Transfer
  • Simulations
  • Software Development
  • Specifications
  • Standards
  • Weather Forecasting

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Database Systems and Applications