An evaluation of the U.S. Navy stratospheric extrapolation equations and an intercomparison of several methods of 100, 50 and 30-mb analyses

Abstract

In 1960 the United States Navy Weather Research Facility, Norfolk; Virginia, (NWRF) derived a set of linear regression equations having as their purpose to extrapolate vertically height and temperature data up to the 100-,50-, and 30-mb levels. The equations are statistically evaluated, particularly for the latitude band 30-40 degrees, with a view toward improving their usage in objective analysis by the United States Navy Fleet Numerical Weather Facility, Monterey, California (FNWF) . It is found that the equations' usefulness depends on the "normality" of the synoptic situation, but in general the subject re-evaluation agrees well with tests conducted by NWRF for previous years. An intercomparison of stratospheric analyses at 100- , 50-, and 30-mb, as produced by the Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics of Berlin, Germany, the United States Weather Bureau, the Third Weather Wing of the United States Air Force, and FNWF indicates the necessity of actual stratospheric data (not just regression equations) for analysis at polar latitudes. Several schemes for objective stratospheric analysis, involving minimal use of data, are suggested by the authors.