! coads_demo.jnl *jd* 11/91 ! Description: introduces and briefly explores the COADS climatological data ! COADS is the comprehensive ocean-atmosphere data set compiled at NCAR from ! ship reports over the global ocean. The monthly climatology introduced here ! represents a simple average of all data available for each month of the year ! from 1946-1989. ! Advanced use of FERRET commands in the demo will give you helpful examples ! of their use. See the User's Guide for more on individual commands. ! 7/01 *acm* change uppercase GO LAND to GO land MESSAGE CAN REGION SET MODE VERIFY SET DATA coads_climatology SHOW DATA coads_climatology ! Note that 7 variables are available. The grid is 2x2 degree, and global. MESSAGE SET REGION/Y=60S:80N SET WIND/SIZE=.6/ASPECT=.86 PPL CROSS 1 ! This PPL command causes the equator to be drawn in plots MESSAGE ! Sea level pressure for the average July go rgb_rainbow SHADE/L=7 SLP GO land MESSAGE ! Overlay the July surface wind. VECTOR/OVER/L=7/LEN=10 UWND,VWND MESSAGE ! The horizontal equations of motion on the rotating earth show that ! acceleration of a parcel of air is dependent on the pressure gradient, ! the coriolis force, and any friction retarding its motion. Neglecting ! friction, a geostrophic wind may be defined, where the pressure gradient ! force is balanced by the coriolis force. Let's define variables ug and vg ! to be that geostrophic wind, being careful to use common units of measure. LET RHO = 1.275 ! Use a constant for air density for now LET OMEGA = 2*3.14159/86400 ! The angular velocity of the earth LET DPDX = SLP[X=@DDC]*100 ! Zonal pressure gradient (in SI units) LET DPDY = SLP[Y=@DDC]*100 ! Meridional pressure gradient LET C = 3.14159/180 ! Conversion factor -- radians/degree LET F = 2*OMEGA*SIN(Y[G=SLP]*C) ! The coriolis parameter LET/TITLE="VG" VG = IF ABS(Y) GT 5 THEN DPDX/(F*RHO) LET/TITLE="UG" UG = IF ABS(Y) GT 5 THEN (-1)*DPDY/(F*RHO) ! The geostrophic wind is ill-defined near the equator as f is 0 there. ! This definition specifies ug and vg poleward of latitudes +/- 5 degrees. MESSAGE ! The geostrophic wind VECTOR/LEN=10/L=7 UG,VG GO land MESSAGE ! A bit noisy so let's smooth it 5 grid points in x LET UGS = UG[X=@SBX:5] LET VGS = VG[X=@SBX:5] VECTOR/LEN=10/L=7 UGS,VGS GO land MESSAGE ! Here is the geostrophic wind field superimposed on sea level pressure. SHADE/L=7 SLP GO land VECTOR/LEN=10/OVER/L=7 UGS,VGS ! If we now overlay the observed winds we see that they are often ! subgeostrophic, that is, the coriolis force is not strong enough to ! balance the pressure gradient force (from high to low pressure), ! possibly indicating presence of friction near the earth's surface. VECTOR/LEN=10/OVER/L=7 UWND,VWND MESSAGE ! Here is the same plot for March SHADE/L=3 SLP GO land VECTOR/LEN=10/OVER/L=3 UGS,VGS VECTOR/LEN=10/OVER/L=3 UWND,VWND MESSAGE ! And we can look more closely at a hemisphere SET REGION/Y=5:70 SET WIND/ASP=.5 SHADE/L=7 SLP VECTOR/LEN=10/OVER/L=7 UGS,VGS VECTOR/LEN=10/OVER/L=7 UWND,VWND PPL CROSS 0 ! The "land" go tool ("go land") is useful for continental outlines and has ! been used several times in this demo. There is another tool to fill ! the land masses with a dark grey color, "go fland". A land mask is layed ! over the plot, as in: MESSAGE GO fland ! The "go land" tool can still be used, too. MESSAGE GO land MESSAGE ! More exploration of global climate is possible using the COADS climatology. ! This demonstration uses a fixed value for the density of air. Since ! pressure, temperature, and specific humidity are available, density could ! be cast in a more complex functional form. Models of the friction suggested ! above can be tested. And other explorations that come to mind. MESSAGE GO rgb_rainbow SET WINDOW/ASPECT=.86