Objective Contour Analysis Using the Surface of Least Bending (Spline Analysis)

摘要

Objective height and vorticity contour analysis is done on upper air plot data over a limited geographical region by fitting a surface of least elastic bending to the data. All height and wind data are fit exactly, as implied by the second law of thermodynamics. The least bending surface has the greatest probability of reconstructing the original field from the given data points. No other analysis method can do this. The program was written to provide the most accurate reconstruction possible of the original fields which generated the height and wind data. As a result, spline analysis should correlate better with satellite imagery than other methods, given that the data are accurate. A barotropic forecast model derived from spline analysis has also been written.