Meteorological Parameters Required in an Automatic Data Processing Complex

Abstract

A brief description of the currently operational numerical weather prediction model will be given and the observational requirements of the model will be discussed and compared with observations currently available. The one most important unfulfilled requirement of the model is a need for a high density of wind and temperature data over oceans in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

The next operational model, due before 1971, will have greater resolution, more detailed physics, and will encompass a larger area of the globe. It will therefore impose greater requirements on the observation network, although the quality need not exceed those of a rawinsonde observation. The new requirements will be a greater resolution in the horizontal, at least as high as the present network over the United States, and better ocean surface temperature measurements.

The pace of development of operational models is influenced by the characteristics of the observation network. For example, extension of the currently operational model into the Southern Hemisphere could hardly be justified in view of the extreme scarcity of data there. We are clearly observation-limited there rather than model-limited. To a lesser extent this is also true in the Northern Hemisphere.