Estimation of divergent wind from OLR data for use in objective analysis over the Indian region

Abstract

A scheme is formulated for the use of OLR data in the estimation of vertical velocity; divergence and then the divergent part of the wind over Indian region. In this scheme, ascending motion over cloudy region is estimated from an empirical relation between the cloud top temperature and descending motion over cloud-free region is estimated from the thermodynamic energy equation and both are blended. From this blended vertical velocity field, aivergence, velocity potential and divergent winds at all standard levels from 4 to 8 July 1979 at 00 UTC are computed. These fields are compared with satellite cloud pictures, rainfall etc and they are found to be realistic in depicting the synoptic conditions. Total wind is computed as the sum of the estimated divergent component and rotational component computed from observed wind field. For assessment of the scheme, this total wind field at 850 hPa is used as initial. guess field in univariate optimum interpolation scheme and analyses were made for the period 4 to 8 July 1979. Results show that scheme is able to produce realistic analyses which included divergent part of the wind.