Study of Length of Record Needed to Obtain Satisfactory Climatic Summaries for Various Meteorological Elements
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to establish the number of years that are needed in order to obtain a relatively constant frequency distribution of various meteorological elements. The limits within which a distribution function may fluctuate and still be considered satisfactory are arbitrary, but they were chosen in such fashion that, for all practical purposes of military planning, addition of further years of record would not add significantly to the interpretation of the climatic records. After the number of years which will yield this result are satisfactorily established, the work of compiling climatic records can be reduced to the absolute minimum necessary to gain the desired information. In the limited amount of time available for this study, it was not possible to choose and study stations representing all the possible climatic regions of the world, but the stations chosen will at least convey as far as possible the length of the approximate shortest records which will permit reliable deductions. The elements subjected to statistical analysis were those which had not been studied previously by climatologists with regard to the significant levels obtained by varying length of record. Such studies heretofore were largely restricted to temperature and precipitation amounts. This study extends our knowledge with respect to the elements significant for military aviation, such as: (a) Horizontal visibility; (b) Cloud heights; (c) Cloudiness; (d) Persistence of rain spells; (e) Wind velocity (surface). The stations and data used are shown in table 1.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1943
- Accession Number
- ADB818025