On Aug 21, 2014, at 12:21 PM, Mike Borgelt <mborg...@borgeltinstruments.com>
wrote:
> The models need updating or initialising with real observations. According to
> the BoM in Brisbane, Brisbane at least still launches balloons for the
> Observations they publish.
> The bloke I spoke to thought this was also the case for the other stations on
> the aerological diagrams page.
> You can do all the modelling you like but weather models drift from reality
> over time. A few days is all it takes. Nowadays they at least still look like
> real weather charts. They didn't used to after a while.
> Hence the need to update with real data.
BoM runs a continuous simulation of the global atmosphere which is continuously
refreshed with observational data. Some of the observational data does indeed
come from balloons, but there is also plenty from other sources, such as
instrument packs carried on airliners, radar systems, data obtained from other
national weather services, and so on.
All of the F160 plots are outputs of the simulation model - i.e., they’re not
produced from raw observational data, they’re slices at a point in time
produced by the simulation.
Some of the sites which used to launch balloons are no longer manned and hence
no longer have regular balloon flights, but F160 diagrams are still produced by
the simulation model because it simulates the entire atmosphere, not just the
bits of air above manned weather stations.
- mark
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