An iterative algorithm for objective wind field analysis

Abstract

Three different algorithms for objective wind field analysis were tested on the same set of initial conditions: Dickerson-Sasaki's 'strong constraint' algorithm, a fixed-vorticity algorithm, and a newly proposed fixed-station-velocity algorithm. The three methods are compared with respect to the degree of minimization of wind divergence and the accuracy of wind data at a measured station. The first two techniques, though they reduce wind divergence, produce wind vectors substantially different from the observed values. The proposed iterative scheme is similar to Endlich's (1967) procedure for treating a macroscale wind field, and minimizes divergence while retaining the observed wind vectors.