An Analysis Scheme for Tropical Wind Fields by the Three-dimensional MASCON Model

Abstract

For the analysis of the tropical wind fields, Heta (1990, 1991) applied the two-dimensional MASCON model, which adjusts and smoothes the interpolated wind data to satisfy the continuity equation at the lower (850 hPa) level. However, the upper level (200 hPa) was evaluated only by interpolation. In the present paper, the analysis scheme of the three-dimensional MASCON model is developed, that provides us with the three-dimensional wind fields (μ, ν, ω) over the whole troposphere in the tropical regions using the variational calculus technique as the extension of the previous two-dimensional model. The spatially sparse wind data set of satellite cloud and rawinsonde wind data is adjusted to satisfy continuity equation at all levels consistently. By the use of this new scheme, the tropical wind fields surrounding the same tropical disturbances as the previous papers are reanalyzed and the previous results are certified to be correct.