THE COMPUTATION OF THE THREE CARTESIAN WAVELENGTHS OFA MOUNTAIN WAVE FROM THREE SOUNDINGS

P. ALEXANDER, A. DE LA TORRE, P. LLAMEDO AND C. MENENDÉZ

Bremen

Congreso; COSPAR; 2010

COSPAR Scientific Assembly

The number of atmospheric sounding techniques and the amount of missions within each of them continues to grow at the present time. The probability of having two or more profiles in a given region and time interval therefore increases. In the case of three close observations it would be a priori possible to infer the three Cartesian wavelengths of a mountain wave. However, the relative orientation of the three sounding paths cannot be arbitrary and must fulfill some conditions to avoid errors to grow out of given bounds. If three oblique soundings are rather well distributed with respect to the azimuthal angle, then they may reach acceptable error limits. Also, two limb experiments may be combined with a third rather vertical technique, which may provide a nearly orthogonal set, that would imply low uncertainty in the three Cartesian wavelengths.An ambiguity of more than one acceptable solution may not be avoided in some cases.