Selected Comments on the Use of the Divergence Equation to Obtain Temperature and Geopotentials from an Observed Wind

Abstract

Recent suggestions to use the full divergence equation and nearly continuous (in time) wind observations to retrieve the geopotential and temperature of large-scale and mesoscale (but still hydrostatic) phenomena are examined. By extrapolating from results obtained in small-scale meteorology the following is suggested: 1) boundary conditions for the normal derivative of temperature (or the geopotential) can be obtained from the wind data itself and 2) objective criteria can be devised to indirectly test the quality of the results and also to decide whether Neumann (i.e., a case in which the normal derivative is specified) or Dirichlet (i.e., the function itself is specified) type boundary conditions should be enforced.