SOME RELATIONS AMONG ATMOSPHERIC STATISTICS

Abstract

Standard deviations (of pressure, density, temperature and wind) and correlation coefficients (between pressure and density, pressure and temperature, and pressure and wind) are related to each other, and to the vertical and horizontal gradients of the standard deviation of pressure. These relations are analogous to the hydrostatic and the geostrophic-wind equations, but involve the standard deviation of pressure instead of the pressure, and the standard deviation of the wind instead of the wind, together with other statistics. Two measures of the size of pressure systems are introduced, one of depth and the other of radius. These are based on the variation of the correlation between pressures at two points (separated vertically but over the same geographical location, and separated horizontally but at the same level, respectively) with respect to the distance between them. The relations derived are checked against observational data. Most of the checks appear to be reasonably good, although the data available do not really satisfy all of the assumptions involved in deriving the relations.