Methods of synoptic analysis at low latitudes

✍ Scribed by I. E. M. Watts

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1955
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 411 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49708135007

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The apparent differences in the methods of synoptic analysis employed in the tropical Pacific and in equatorial SE. Asia represent nothing more than adaptations of the same technique. Over the Pacific it is unusual for two different air‐streams to meet at a large angle and, since their common boundary cannot be traced from day to day with continuity, reliance must be placed on recognition of short‐lived asymptotes and vortices from the instantaneous streamlines. Over equatorial SE. Asia, long semi‐permanent boundaries can be traced with continuity owing to the persistence of the westerlies. The difference of opinion as to the most desirable method of analysis is mainly due to the variations in horizontal extent of the equatorial westerlies in different longitudes. At the boundary between the trades and the westerlies there are separate centres of rainfall rather than a continuous rain‐band.