A COMPARISON OF 2 OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES FOR PROFILER TIME-HEIGHT DATA

Two methods for objective analysis of wind profiler data in time-heigh t space are proposed and compared. One is a straightforward adaptation of a procedure developed by Doswell for introducing time continuity i nto a sequence of spatial analyses. The second technique, named the co rrelation method, introduces a new rationale for selection of the Barn es filter parameter that is based on knowledge of the statistical stru cture of wind profiler data. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. It is noted that the correlation method, in prin ciple, allows the deduction of consistent sampling intervals in time a nd space for the most dominant phenomena resolved by the data provided by a given atmospheric observing system. It is recommended that an ob jective analysis of wind profiler data be performed before single- or multiprofiler kinematic calculations are made. In addition, it is show n that the positions of extrema in kinematic quantities computed from profiler triangles are relatively insensitive to the number of passes used in the analysis procedures. In fact, it is demonstrated that mult ipass Barnes-type schemes can overfit the original data, suggesting th at a one-pass method may be preferable provided that the filter parame ter is selected property.