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Maj. Gary D. Atkinson, USAF revised by C.S. Ramage. Second Edition, 1991. p.285.
This report broadly surveys our knowledge of tropical meteorology. It discuses the tropical circulation (pressure, winds, temperature, water vapor, cloudiness, diurnal variations), its analysis and forecasting. Although this manual discusses various theoretical hypotheses, it uses little mathematical formulation; it assumes that the reader is familiar with the pressure/wind and the thermal wind relationships, divergence, convergence and vertical motion, vorticity and lapse rate, and generally understands mid-latitude synoptic models. The Guide was used not only to train Air Weather Service meteorologists, but also as a text for university courses.
E-Book Content
Air Weather Service Technical Report 240
Forecaster’s Guide to Tropical Meteorology Second Edition, 1991 by Maj. Gary D. Atkinson, USAF revised by C.S. Ramage
* DOES NOT CONTAIN GRAPHICS * 1 April 1971 / Revised August 1991 (Second Draft) PDF version published by Weather Graphics weathergraphics.com No copyright claimed No restriction on distribution
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION As correctly forecast in the Preface to the first edition, Forecasters’ Guide to Tropical Meteorology was used not only to train Air Weather Service meteorologists, but also as a text for university courses. It was even translated into Chinese. Technological advances in the last twenty years, especially in satellite-based observations, have not seriously affected views expressed in the first edition, but have allowed them to be expanded and refined. Both climatology and synoptic meteorology have benefited, while many hitherto obscure parts of the tropics have been exposed to the global eye. In this edition, satellite data and wide-ranging research have allowed the tropics to be treated more evenly and extensively than before. Sections dealing with Africa, the Americas and south and southwest Asia have been expanded. Satellite pictures illustrate tropical systems and processes. Besides these changes, the following topics have been either added to (bold face) or removed from (italics) the first edition.
Chapter 1. Terminology; heat lows. Chapter 2. Stress-differential along a coast. Chapter 3. Constant-level balloons; surface reports from buoys; Doppler radar; Profiler. Chapter 4. Low-level jet streams. Chapter 5. Upwelling; tradewinds; low-latitude westerlies. Chapter 6. Fog; character of significant rain in the tropics; interannual variation of rainfall and El Niño; seasonal distribution of rainfall and the monsoons; pentad distribution of rainfall. Chapter 7. A new chapter on diurnal variation, combining the scattered discussions of the first edition, and expanding and adding to them. New sections on vertical mixing, stratocumulus and fog, and squall lines. Chapter 8 (formerly Chapter 7). Equatorial waves; monsoon depressions; squall lines; surges; troughs in the upper-tropospheric westerlies; South Pacific convergence zone; superposition of tropical and extra-tropical disturbances; near-equatorial convergence zones Chapter 10 (formerly Chapter 9). Duststorms. Chapter 11 (formerly Chapter 10). Isogon analysis; kinematic frontal analysis. Chapter 12 (formerly Chapter 11). Stability indexes (reduced); preparing to forecast in a new area; 30-60 day cycles; Atlantic tropical storms (seasonal forecasts); preparing to forecast in a new area. FIGURES: 137 have been retained and 171 added. REFERENCES: 177 have been retained and 367 added.
The range of topics and locations cannot be simply dealt with sequentially; to avoid repetition, extensive cross-referencing has been used. Detailed subject, geographical and author indexes have been added, as well as a fold-out locator map.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Many present and former members of Air Weather Servic