An intercomparison of isentropic trajectories over the South Atlantic

Abstract

Using the model of Schoeberl et al., isentropic forward trajectories were computed from an array of points over southern Africa and backward trajectories from an array of points over the South Atlantic. The model was run for an 8-day period in October 1989 with input taken from the twice-daily global gridded data fields from the NMC and from the ECMWF. There were large differences between the trajectories based on the two fields in terms of travel distance, horizontal separation, and vertical separation. Best comparisons for individual trajectories were found in the low-latitude easterlies, and the poorest comparisons were found in the westerlies and in the vicinity of the center for the South Atlantic subtropical anticyclone. Significant differences in wind speeds between the two analyses also led to large trajectory differences. -from Authors