A Harmonic-Sine Series Expansion and its Application to Partitioning and Reconstruction Problems in a Limited Area

Abstract

A harmonic-sine series expansion for a function in two-dimensional space is proposed to be a sum of two parts. The harmonic part is the solution of the Laplace equation with prescribed boundary values of this function. The inner part is the function from which the harmonic part has been subtracted; thus, it has zero boundary value and can be expanded by the double Fourier sine series. By using the harmonic-sine series expansion, it is shown that only simple operations are needed to solve the Laplace, Poisson, and Helmholtz equations with a given boundary condition. The harmonic-sine series expansion is used to solve the wind partitioning and reconstruction problems in a limited area. The internal wind is computed from the inner parts of the streamfunction and the velocity potential. The harmonic wind is the difference between the observed wind and internal wind. In a limited region, the internal wind can be dealt with in the same way as the horizontal wind on the globe. The development of the vorticity and divergence in a limited area can be diagnosed from the inner parts of the streamfunction and velocity potential, and the corresponding internal rotational and divergent wind components. As long as the inner parts of the streamfunction and velocity potential are defined, the separation of the wind field into the internal rotational, the internal divergent, and the harmonic winds becomes completely definite. The harmonic wind is not only nondivergent but also irrotational in a limited region. In both partitioning and reconstruction problems, the key is to solve the Laplace equations of the harmonic parts with the prescribed boundary value of the harmonic wind. The solution of the harmonic parts for the key problem is not unique, but the computed harmonic wind from the harmonic parts is. Based on this characteristic, an iterative method is developed. From a real-data example, it is demonstrated that the harmonic parts of the streamfunction and velocity potential and the computed harmonic wind can be accurately determined within 15 iterations. The iteration method by using harmonic-sine series expansion is very effective in solving the partitioning and reconstruction of problems in a limited region.