An Alternate Procedure for Analyzing Surface Geostraphic Winds and Pressure over Elevated Terrain

Abstract

A methodology to analyze a flat surface geostrophic wind and pressure is presented which eliminates the arbitrariness of the standard reduction of surface pressure to mean sea level. The procedure utilizes a surface geostrophic wind defined in terms of a terrain-following coordinate system to derive a flat ground surface pressure field which is consistent in concept (i.e., nondivergent except for the f variation with latitude) with the currently applied MSL analyses. With this approach, interpretation of synoptic weather patterns in areas of elevated complex terrain will be more accurate.