
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
zA multi-dimensional array containing the geopotential heights. The two rightmost dimensions must be lat and lon.
latA one-dimensional array containing the latitude coordinates in degrees. Must be a monotonically increasing or decreasing array.
lonA one-dimensional array containing the longitude coordinates in degrees. Must be in ascending order and is assumed to be equally spaced.
ioptA 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]