Weather data analysis

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What is Weather Analysis?
The first step in preparing a weather forecast is the gathering and analysis of weather data. This step provides you as the forecaster with a three-dimensional picture of what is going on
within the atmosphere and a sense of why the atmosphere is doing what it is doing. Before exploring the various aspects of operational weather analysis, we need to ask the question: What
is weather analysis?
Definition of Weather Analysis The dictionary defines “analysis” as a detailed examination of
something. It is a process that breaks the object of the analysis into parts so that each part can be examined in detail. This process determines its nature, function, and other characteristics. In operational weather analysis the object is the atmosphere, specifically, the troposphere, where day-to-day weather occurs. The parts that we need to examine are the various weather parameters that are typically used to describe the atmosphere: temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction,
atmospheric pressure, clouds, precipitation, etc. We generally do our analysis at one specific time in order to get a glimpse of what is happening in the atmosphere at that moment. However,
analysis over time is often useful to provide a better picture of how things are changing.
Examination of atmospheric components can be carried out in two ways: (1) isopleths of each component are drawn in order to visualize the pattern associated with that particular component;
and (2) time series or sequential maps of a component are examined to determine changes over time. Drawing of isopleths, whether done manually or by computer, is a fairly mechanical
process that will be described in . Keep in mind that drawing isopleths or time series is only in the analysis process. The second, and more important, step in meteorological analysis is the interpretation of the patterns found in Examination of these patterns should address questions such as:
a. What physical processes do these patterns and time
changes indicate?
b. Is there evidence of weather systems? Operational Weather Analysis
c. Do these weather systems fit any of the standard meteorological analysis models?
The interpretation carried out in must be integrated over space and time to provide an understanding of what is occurring in the troposphere and to explain why things are occurring. This
part of the process requires a thorough understanding of how the atmosphere works. This background information is usually obtained through a series of atmospheric science courses at the
introductory and intermediate level. The process of putting the components back together to form a complete picture of the atmosphere is called synthesis. Thus operational weather analysis consists of two parts: analysis (in the formal sense of the term, i.e., breaking something into its component parts for examination), and synthesis (or bringing the components back together to achieve
complete understanding of the whole).

# Weather Analysis

# Operational Weather Analysis

#Definition of Weather

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