A Prototype Computer-Aided Meteorological Analysis Workstation for Undergraduate Instruction

梅里尔的“气象分析”是从不规则间隔的测量中估计大气中温度、压力、湿度和速度的四维分布的过程。可以使用客观的计算机方法生成网格场，但教育工作者一致认为，最好是通过绘制上述变量的等值线的“天气图”来学习基本原理。当需要最高质量的分析时，人工方法也用于研究和预测。必要的可视化、推理和图形能力是在一系列的两门或更多的本科课程中学习到的。手工分析有三个主要缺点：1)教授和应用它非常耗时，2)定量物理约束（如压力和风之间的平衡）很难纳入，3)结果分析（地图）不容易用于物理过程的后续计算，这通常需要网格上的有限差值。我们正在发展一个计算机辅助气象分析（CAMA）实验室，它将克服这些限制，同时保留人工分析的优点。分析学生能够在连接到CAMA工作站的笔板上绘制等值线，并立即将其重铸为网格场。工作站提供关于他们工作的准确性和一致性的即时反馈，使教师可以花更多的时间在解释上，而不是在力学上。CAMA还将现有的分析课程直接与理论气象学联系起来，允许学生直接从他们的分析中诊断动态过程。CAMA也在研究中找到了直接的应用，最终也在天气预报中找到了应用，并且在必须对流体状态变量进行分析的任何地方都有更广泛的应用。

9351904 Merrill "Meteorological analysis" is the process of estimating the four- dimensional distribution of temperature, pressure, humidity, and velocity in the atmosphere from irregularly spaced measurements. Objective computer methods which produce gridded fields are available, but educators agree that the underlying principles are best learned by drawing "weather maps" of isopleths of the above variables. Manual methods are also used in both research and prediction when the highest quality analyses are needed. The necessary visualization, reasoning, and graphical abilities are learned in a series of two or more undergraduate courses. There are three main drawbacks to manual analyses: 1) teaching and applying it is very time consuming, 2) quantitative physical constraints (such as balance between the pressure force and the wind) are difficult to incorporate, and 3) the resulting analyses (maps) are not readily usable for subsequent calculations of physical processes, which typically require values on a grid for finite differences. We are developing a Computer-Aided Meteorological Analysis (CAMA) laboratory which will overcome these limitations while retaining the advantages of manual analysis. Analysis students are able to draw isopleths on a pen tablet attached to the CAMA workstation and have them immediately recast as a gridded field. The workstations provide immediate feedback about the accuracy and consistency of their work, allowing the instructor to spend more time on interpretation and less on mechanics. CAMA also links the existing analysis curriculum directly with theoretical meteorology by allowing students to diagnose dynamic processes directly from their analyses. CAMA also is finding immediate applications in research and eventually in weather forecasting as well, and has wider application wherever analyses of state variables of fluids must be made.