Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 

About: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society is an academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Data assimilation & Stratosphere. It has an ISSN identifier of 0035-9009. Over the lifetime, 8911 publications have been published receiving 447144 citations. The journal is also known as: Royal Meteorological Society. Quarterly Journal & Bibliography of Meteorological Literature.

The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system

Abstract: ERA-Interim is the latest global atmospheric reanalysis produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The ERA-Interim project was conducted in part to prepare for a new atmospheric reanalysis to replace ERA-40, which will extend back to the early part of the twentieth century. This article describes the forecast model, data assimilation method, and input datasets used to produce ERA-Interim, and discusses the performance of the system. Special emphasis is placed on various difficulties encountered in the production of ERA-40, including the representation of the hydrological cycle, the quality of the stratospheric circulation, and the consistency in time of the reanalysed fields. We provide evidence for substantial improvements in each of these aspects. We also identify areas where further work is needed and describe opportunities and objectives for future reanalysis projects at ECMWF. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society

The ERA‐40 re‐analysis

Abstract: ERA-40 is a re-analysis of meteorological observations from September 1957 to August 2002 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in collaboration with many institutions. The observing system changed considerably over this re-analysis period, with assimilable data provided by a succession of satellite-borne instruments from the 1970s onwards, supplemented by increasing numbers of observations from aircraft, ocean-buoys and other surface platforms, but with a declining number of radiosonde ascents since the late 1980s. The observations used in ERA-40 were accumulated from many sources. The first part of this paper describes the data acquisition and the principal changes in data type and coverage over the period. It also describes the data assimilation system used for ERA-40. This benefited from many of the changes introduced into operational forecasting since the mid-1990s, when the systems used for the 15-year ECMWF re-analysis (ERA-15) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) re-analysis were implemented. Several of the improvements are discussed. General aspects of the production of the analyses are also summarized. A number of results indicative of the overall performance of the data assimilation system, and implicitly of the observing system, are presented and discussed. The comparison of background (short-range) forecasts and analyses with observations, the consistency of the global mass budget, the magnitude of differences between analysis and background fields and the accuracy of medium-range forecasts run from the ERA-40 analyses are illustrated. Several results demonstrate the marked improvement that was made to the observing system for the southern hemisphere in the 1970s, particularly towards the end of the decade. In contrast, the synoptic quality of the analysis for the northern hemisphere is sufficient to provide forecasts that remain skilful well into the medium range for all years. Two particular problems are also examined: excessive precipitation over tropical oceans and a too strong Brewer-Dobson circulation, both of which are pronounced in later years. Several other aspects of the quality of the re-analyses revealed by monitoring and validation studies are summarized. Expectations that the ‘second-generation’ ERA-40 re-analysis would provide products that are better than those from the firstgeneration ERA-15 and NCEP/NCAR re-analyses are found to have been met in most cases. © Royal Meteorological Society, 2005. The contributions of N. A. Rayner and R. W. Saunders are Crown copyright.

Correction of flux measurements for density effects due to heat and water vapour transfer

Abstract: When the atmospheric turbulent flux of a minor constituent such as CO2 (or of water vapour as a special case) is measured by either the eddy covariance or the mean gradient technique, account may need to be taken of variations of the constituent's density due to the presence of a flux of heat and/or water vapour. In this paper the basic relationships are discussed in the context of vertical transfer in the lower atmosphere, and the required corrections to the measured flux are derived. If the measurement involves sensing of the fluctuations or mean gradient of the constituent's mixing ratio relative to the dry air component, then no correction is required; while with sensing of the constituent's specific mass content relative to the total moist air, a correction arising from the water vapour flux only is required. Correspondingly, if in mean gradient measurements the constituent's density is measured in air from different heights which has been pre-dried and brought to a common temperature, then again no correction is required; while if the original (moist) air itself is brought to a common temperature, then only a correction arising from the water vapour flux is required. If the constituent's density fluctuations or mean gradients are measured directly in the air in situ, then corrections arising from both heat and water vapour fluxes are required. These corrections will often be very important. That due to the heat flux is about five times as great as that due to an equal latent heat (water vapour) flux. In CO2 flux measurements the magnitude of the correction will commonly exceed that of the flux itself. The correction to measurements of water vapour flux will often be only a few per cent but will sometimes exceed 10 per cent.

Some simple solutions for heat-induced tropical circulation.

Abstract: A simple analytic model is constructed to elucidate some basic features of the response of the tropical atmosphere to diabatic heating. In particular, there is considerable east-west asymmetry which can be illustrated by solutions for heating concentrated in an area of finite extent. This is of more than academic interest because heating in practice tends to be concentrated in specific areas. For instance, a model with heating symmetric about the equator at Indonesian longitudes produces low-level easterly flow over the Pacific through propagation of Kelvin waves into the region. It also produces low-level westerly inflow over the Indian Ocean (but in a smaller region) because planetary waves propagate there. In the heating region itself the low-level flow is away from the equator as required by the vorticity equation. The return flow toward the equator is farther west because of planetary wave propagation, and so cyclonic flow is obtained around lows which form on the western margins of the heating zone. Another model solution with the heating displaced north of the equator provides a flow similar to the monsoon circulation of July and a simple model solution can also be found for heating concentrated along an inter-tropical convergence line.