A Comparison of Operational Analysis and VHF Wind Profiler Vertical Velocities

Abstract

We Present a comparison of vertical velocity data obtained with the SOUSY-VHF-Radar operating near Bad Lauterberg in West Germany and the vertical velocities produced by the operational analysis of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting. Three cases are presented including a 3-day period in March 1981. an 11-day period in November 1981, and a 5-day period in April 1984. The synoptic conditions were characterized by wintertime flows, and a number of warm- and cold-frontal passages occurred. We find that the magnitude of the vertical velocity variations are comparable in the observations and in the analysis data in the troposphere, but the radar shows much larger fluctuations in the stratosphere. Although the same trends in ascent and subsidence are present in both datasets, there is, on the whole, no one-to-one correspondence between individual features in the radar and the analysis vertical velocities over time scales of a day or two.