Impact of Monex-79 data on the objective analysis of the wind field over the Indian region

Abstract

The monsoon sub-programme of FGGE deployed a variety of observing systems such as research aircraft, research vessels, floating ballooms, and a geostationary satellite, etc. during the special observational period of Monex-79, with a view to making the best possible data set available for studies on various aspects of the monsoon circulation. Whether the data obtained from the various observational platorms improve the representation of the monsson systems, flow patterns, etc. in the analysis is the basis of this study. For this, the objective analyses of the wind field were made with different data sets, first using only the data from conventional observation platforms, subsequently including the data from aircraft and ships and then finally including the data from the satellite. These analyses were compared with carefully made subjective analyses. It is inferred that the addition of data has a positive impact on the objective analysis and the improvement in the analysis is more marked in the data-void region like the Arabian Sea compared to the region where observational stations are distributed fairly stisfactorily. It is also inferred that the impact of the aircraft/ship data on the analysis is more consistent than the data from the satellite.