Title: Model Trajectories, Back BoM GASP (Smart Balloon)

Contact:

   Steve Siems
   Monash University
   Department of Mathematics
   Clayton, Victoria, , AUSTRALIA, 3168
   Telephone: (61) 3-905-4406
   Facsimile: (61) 3-905-3807
   E-Mail Address: siems@cyclone.maths.monash.edu.au  or
   s.siems@sci.monash.edu.au


Data Set Description:

These trajectories are designed to aid in the analysis
of the balloon observations and the Lagrangian experiments.

For Lagrangian A balloon 10 is examined.  For Lagrangian B
balloons 00, 06 and 08 are examined.  The trajectories are
begun on locations based upon the data of Steve Businger.

Trajectories will fail if the track hits the surface, rises above approx
500 HPa or flows off the restricted domain of the GASP data.  Also, the
lowest interpolated GASP data is to the 0.991 omega level.  This corresponds
to roughly 110 meters height.  Trajectories below this level are not
accurate.  Most likely they will be moving too quickly as they do not
reflect the physics of the surface drag on the air flow.  They still provide
a good estimate of the air motion for the first 12-24 hours.

These various trajectories were made in an effort to determine
the impact that the vertical motion of the balloon had on the
air mass trajectory.  The differences between trajectories is not
negligible as there is strong wind shear for all days.  It is again
important to note that the GASP winds are only accurate to
roughly 110 meters altitude.  All four balloons drop below this
level on a number of occasions.  As a result of this, the trajectories
track more quickly than the actual balloon motion.


Format: space-delimited ASCII

DATE TIME LAT(N) LONG(E) HGT(mb) UWND VWND OMEGA(mb/s) TEMP SPHU SFCP

DATE - YYYY/MM/DD (UTC)
TIME - HH:MM:SS (UTC)
LAT(N) - latitude
LONG(E) - longitude
HGT(mb) - pressure
UWND - U wind component
VWND - V wind component
OMEGA(mb/s) - vertical velocity in pressure
TEMP - temperature
SPHU - relative humidity
SFCP - surface pressure


File Name Conventions:
  This subdirectory is divided into subdirectories by balloon
  (b00, b06, b08, b10). Each balloon subdirectory contains
  six data files:

b5_data.dat - backwards 5-day trajectory using vertical winds
f2_data.dat - forwards 2-day trajectory using vertical winds
f2_isob.dat - forwards 2-day trajectory assuming an isobaric trajectory
f2_topl.dat - forwards 2-day trajectory using vertical winds.
              This trajectory is an approximate
              UPPER limit starting at 1000m altitude.
f2_botl.dat - forwards 2-day trajectory using vertical winds.
              This trajectory is an approximate
              LOWER limit starting at 100m altitude.
f2_comp.dat - forwards 2-day COMPOSITE isobaric trajectory.
              The pressure was readjusted
              hourly to match the balloon observations.


References: None.