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Mesoscale Analysis Method for Surface Potential Temperature in Mountainous and Coastal Terrain

American Meteorological Society

A technique is developed to anisotropically spread surface observations in steep valleys. The goal is to create an improved objective analysis for the lowest, terrain-following numerical weather prediction (NWP) model level in mountainous terrain. The method is a mother–daughter (MD) approach, where the amount of information transferred from one grid point (the mother) to all neighboring grid points (the daughters) depends on elevation differences. The daughters become mothers and further share information with their neighboring grid points. This iterative method allows information to follow valleys around ridges, while reducing spread over the ridge top. The method is further refined to account for land–sea anisotropy. This approach is tested in the objective analyses of surface potential temperatures over the steep mountainous and coastal terrain of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Analysis results are compared with other existing schemes using the Advanced Regional Prediction System Data Assimilation System (ADAS). It is found that the MD approach outperforms the other schemes over mountainous and coastal terrain. Copyright 2005 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyright@ametsoc.org.

Text

2011-04-11

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33533

Deng, Xingxiu, Stull, Roland B. 2005. Mesoscale Analysis Method for Surface Potential Temperature in Mountainous and Coastal Terrain. Monthly Weather Review. 133(2) 389-408.

Reviewed

Stull, Roland B.

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