Objective analysis of the ARM IOP data: method and sensitivity

Motivated by the need of to obtain accurate objective analysis of field experimental data to force physical parameterizations in numerical models, this paper -first reviews the existing objective analysis methods and interpolation schemes that are used to derive atmospheric wind divergence, vertical velocity, and advective tendencies. Advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. It is shown that considerable uncertainties in the analyzed products can result from the use of different analysis schemes and even more from different implementations of a particular scheme. The paper then describes a hybrid approach to combine the strengths of the regular grid method and the line-integral method, together with a variational constraining procedure for the analysis of field experimental data. In addition to the use of upper air data, measurements at the surface and at the top-of-the-atmosphere are used to constrain the upper air analysis to conserve column-integrated mass, water, energy, and momentum. Analyses are shown for measurements taken in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Programs (ARM) July 1995 Intensive Observational Period (IOP). Sensitivity experiments are carried out to test the robustness of the analyzed data and to reveal the uncertainties in the analysis. It is shown that the variational constraining process significantly reduces the sensitivity of the final data products