EAS 485 Spring 2009 Assignment 1

Surface Analysis (Part I) for 25 April 2008

Due: Friday, January 30

Download and print the attached regional surface maps for 25 April 2008:

• 00Z 25 April 2008
• 03Z 25 April 2008
• 06Z 25 April 2008
• 09Z 25 April 2008
• 12Z 25 April 2008

1. On one copy of each chart, analyze:

• Temperature every 5°F (.., 50, 55, 60, ...-solid)
• Label all contours

2. On a second copy of each chart, analyze:

• Isallobars every 1 mb/3 hr
  • Rises in blue
  • Falls in red
  • Zero in black
  • Label each contour (-1, 0, +1, etc.)
• Blue R for every rise center, Red F for every fall center
  • No Rs or Fs on map edge

3. On a third copy of each chart, analyze:

• Smoothed isobars every 4 mb (...,1000, 1004, 1008, ....)
• High (blue) and low (red) centers with their central pressure in whole mb

4. Use all of your previous analyses to make a first guess of fronts (warm-red; cold-blue), troughs (brown dashed), and other boundaries.

• Plot the fronts on the same map as the isobars.
• Final isobars should kink at boundaries

When doing analysis, note that Fujita found that thunderstorms affect the pressure and wind field.

• See Fujita's depiction of the thunderstorm high and wake low and how they can change during the life cycle of a thunderstorm complex.

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Last Updated: January 21, 2009

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