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z2geouv

Computes the geostrophic zonal and meridional wind components using geopotential height on isobaric levels (rectilinear grid only).

Prototype

	function z2geouv (
		z       : numeric,  
		lat [*] : numeric,  
		lon [*] : numeric,  
		iopt    : integer   
	)

Arguments

z

A multi-dimensional array containing the geopotential heights. The two rightmost dimensions must be lat and lon.

lat

A one-dimensional array containing the latitude coordinates in degrees. Must be a monotonically increasing or decreasing array.

lon

A one-dimensional array containing the longitude coordinates in degrees. Must be in ascending order and is assumed to be equally spaced.

iopt

A scalar integer: iopt=0 -> z is not cyclic in longitude; iopt=1 -> z is cyclic in longitude.

Return value

A double array is returned if z is double; a float array is returned otherwise.

If the rightmost dimensions of z are nlat x mlon and N represents all other variable dimensions, then the u and v wind components are returned as a variable dimensioned 2 x N x nlat x mlon. The leftmost dimension of size 2 contains the u [zonal] and v [meridional] wind components.

The examples clarify the above information.

Description

This function computes geostrophic wind components at isobaric levels on a rectilinear latitude-longitude grid. If a latitude is exactly at the equator, the function sets the components to missing. The grid need not be global and missing values are allowed.

Specifically, the following are used: 


           u = -(g/f)*[dZ/dy]        

           v =  (g/f)*[dZ/dx]
where g=gravity, f=Coriolis Force and [...] indicate isobaric levels. The 'dx' and 'dy' are derived assuming a rectilinear grid structure..

NOTE: The WRF, RUC and other similar models are not on rectilinear grids.

Examples

Example 1

Assume z is a global grid with dimension sizes (ntim,klev,nlat,mlon). There are no missing values and the data are periodic in longitude. Then: 

   uv = z2geouv (z,lat,lon, 1)  ; uv(2,ntim,klev,nlat,mlon)
Example 2

Assume z is an array on a limited area of the globe with dimension sizes (ntim=100,nlat=34,mlon=60). 

  uv = z2geouv (z,lat,lon, 0)  ==> uv(2,100,34,60)
Example 3

Using the results of Example 1, create separate u and v arrays with attributes and coordinate arrays. Note: This is not necessary. It is presented for illustration only. 

  u  = uv(0,:,:,:,:)                                ; u(ntim,klev,nlat,mlon)
  u@long_name = "geostrophic zonal wind component"
  u@units     = "m/s"

  u!0    = "time"
  u!1    = "lev"
  u!2    = "lat"
  u!3    = "lon"

  u&time =  time
  u&lev  =  lev
  u&lat  =  lat
  u&lon  =  lon

  [same for v]