Contour Analysis
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Contour Analysis Nick Bassill February 3 rd 2009
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Contour Analysis. Nick Bassill February 3 rd 2009. Station Models. These display virtually all the relevant current weather observations for a given weather station http://weather.cod.edu/notes/stnmodel.html. Meanings. Wind Speeds. An Example From Tuesday Morning: - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Contour Analysis
Contour Analysis
Nick BassillFebruary 3rd 2009
Station Models
These display virtually all the relevant current weather observations for a given weather station
http://weather.cod.edu/notes/stnmodel.html
Meanings
Wind Speeds
An Example From
Tuesday Morning:
http://www.ral.ucar.edu/weather/surface/
Observations about Observations
• Conventionally, only temperature, dewpoint, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, pressure, current weather, and visibility (if less than 10 miles) are shown
• However, much of the planet goes unobserved• Large differences in temperature, dewpoint, etc.
can exist from location to location• This is why we must do contour analysis in order
to “fill in” the missing data
How Do We Do Contour Analysis?
• You can think of it like a glorified version of “connect the dots”
• However, for contour analysis, we have to “fill in” some of the missing data
• The goal of contour analysis is to allow for easier interpretation of the current weather
• Some things to remember:- Lines never cross- Always use a pencil so you can erase lines
• Now for an example …
