A Factor Analysis of Winds to 60 km over Battery MacKenzie, C.Z.

Abstract

Factor-analysis techniques are used to estimate the residual variances of the wind components over Battery MacKenzie, C.Z. These residual variances represent the combination of small-scale effects and observation errors of the wind components at the levels concerned. The number of significant proper functions required to represent the wind sounding are estimated using the methods of factor analysis rather than relying on an arbitrary choice of some fraction of the total variance to determine the appropriate number. In making a persistence estimate of the wind components, only a very few of the significant proper functions are useful.