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- Title
Potential Temperature and Potential Vorticity Inversion: Complementary Approaches.
- Authors
Egger, Joseph; Hoinka, Klaus-Peter
- Abstract
Given the distribution of one atmospheric variable, that of nearly all others can be derived in balanced flow. In particular, potential vorticity inversion (PVI) selects potential vorticity (PV) to derive pressure, winds, and potential temperature θθ. Potential temperature inversion (PTI) starts from available θθ fields to derive pressure, winds, and PV. While PVI has been applied extensively, PTI has hardly been used as a research tool although the related technical steps are well known and simpler than those needed in PVI. Two idealized examples of PTI and PVI are compared. The 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-40) datasets are used to determine typical anomalies of PV and θθ in the North Atlantic storm-track region. Statistical forms of PVI and PTI are applied to these anomalies. The inversions are equivalent but the results of PTI are generally easier to understand than those of PVI. The issues of attribution and piecewise inversion are discussed.
- Subjects
STORMS; TEMPERATURE; VORTEX motion; ATMOSPHERIC circulation; WEATHER forecasting; DATA analysis; INVERSION (Geophysics)
- Publication
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 2010, Vol 67, Issue 12, p4001
- ISSN
0022-4928
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1175/2010JAS3532.1