A Comparison of Several Meteorological Analysis Schemes over a Data-Rich Region

Abstract

Among the many ways of comparing meteorological analyses, two are considered in this paper: their ability to fit the contours to observed data and to portray accurately the amplitude and position of synoptic-scale waves. Four analysis methods are investigated in a data-rich area: the National Meteorological Center (NMC) operational successive-correction objective analysis, a global statistical multivariate analysis, an isentropic analysis and a hand-analyzed subjective analysis. Analyses of wind and height for 11–14 December 1967 are compared on mandatory pressure surfaces. The individual analysts show minor differences in the positions and intensifies of synoptic-scale meteorological features, in gradients, and in the smoothing of the data. Most differences are explained in terms of the computational methods employed by each analysis scheme. The NMC, isentropic and multivariate schemes fit the station data more closely than the subjective analyses. On the basis of these comparisons, we are unable to distinguish among the performances of the three objective analyses in a data-rich area.