3-DIMENSIONAL TRACER INITIALIZATION AND GENERAL DIAGNOSTICS USING EQUIVALENT PV LATITUDE-POTENTIAL-TEMPERATURE COORDINATES

This paper describes a simple, but effective, procedure for producing three-dimensional tracer fields and general diagnostics based on an eq uivalent PV latitude-potential-temperature coordinate system. The trac er fields generated by this method are shown to agree quantitatively w ith independently measured profiles and total columns. Using this init ialization makes short model simulations of around a week or so much m ore realistic. It can be used to assimilate non-global measurements, s uch as sonde or solar-occultation satellite data, or to transform two- dimensional model data into three-dimensional fields.