A Comparison of Measured Upper Air Temperatures and Temperatures Derived using the Lapse Rate of the US Standard Atmosphere.

摘要

Measured upper air temperatures at several locations were compared with temperatures derived using surface conditions and the lapse rate of the US Standard Atmosphere. The locations chosen were Helwan, Egypt; Mexico City, Mexico; Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Barrow, Alaska; Denver, Colorado; and Vandenberg Air Force Base and Edwards Air Force Base, California. It was shown that using a standard lapse rate can lead to large deviations from measured temperatures under realistic conditions. These conditions include temperature inversions, strong surface heating, non-standard tropopause heights, and high altitude locations. In several cases, differences between measured and dervied temperatures exceeded 20C. A method was presented which substantially reduced errors arising from low-level inversions by using a measured or forecasted temperature at 5000 feet above ground level. (Author)