9351904 Merrill "Meteorological analysis" is the process of estimating the four- dimensional distribution of temperature, pressure, humidity, and velocity in the atmosphere from irregularly spaced measurements. Objective computer methods which produce gridded fields are available, but educators agree that the underlying principles are best learned by drawing "weather maps" of isopleths of the above variables. Manual methods are also used in both research and prediction when the highest quality analyses are needed. The necessary visualization, reasoning, and graphical abilities are learned in a series of two or more undergraduate courses. There are three main drawbacks to manual analyses: 1) teaching and applying it is very time consuming, 2) quantitative physical constraints (such as balance between the pressure force and the wind) are difficult to incorporate, and 3) the resulting analyses (maps) are not readily usable for subsequent calculations of physical processes, which typically require values on a grid for finite differences. We are developing a Computer-Aided Meteorological Analysis (CAMA) laboratory which will overcome these limitations while retaining the advantages of manual analysis. Analysis students are able to draw isopleths on a pen tablet attached to the CAMA workstation and have them immediately recast as a gridded field. The workstations provide immediate feedback about the accuracy and consistency of their work, allowing the instructor to spend more time on interpretation and less on mechanics. CAMA also links the existing analysis curriculum directly with theoretical meteorology by allowing students to diagnose dynamic processes directly from their analyses. CAMA also is finding immediate applications in research and eventually in weather forecasting as well, and has wider application wherever analyses of state variables of fluids must be made.
