Pressure-contour variance and kinetic energy over the arctic.

• Main Author: Macfarlane, Mona. A.
• Other Authors: Hare, F. (Supervisor)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: McGill University 1958
• Subjects: Geography; Arctic
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=111446

A theoretical relationship between the variance of height (geopotential) and the variance of the geostrophic wind was tested in the Arctic at 500 mb. As had been expected, a high correlation was found to exist between these two quantities although the form of the relationship (linear in the logarithms of the standard deviations of height and wind) was totally unexpected. The Arctic data from previous papers, concerned with the relationship between the time variances of height and wind, were then reanalysed and the relationship between them was found to be of the same form as for the space variances. In both cases the standard error of estimate was too large to be able to calculate accurately the wind variance from the height variance, but the relationships do allow climatological estimates of the mean kinetic energy and the size of the dominant wave systems.