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The analysis of umkehr observations of stratospheric ozone by a ‘Maximum Entropy’ method
Author(s) -
Read P. L.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49710845715
Subject(s) - maximum entropy method , environmental science , ozone , entropy (arrow of time) , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , statistical physics , physics , thermodynamics
An application is described of the ‘Maximum Entropy’ (ME) principle to the analysis of umkehr observations of atmospheric ozone. The method is shown to produce results which are comparable with more conventional analyses, and which show a marginally higher correlation with simultaneous ozonesonde measurements than the standard evaluation method. Differences between conventional and ME solutions are attributable to the low intrinsic information content of umkehr observations, and the use of climatological information in addition to observational data in the standard method of analysis. This additional information may also be included in ME solutions, reducing the systematic errors of the simple ME solutions, but possibly degrading that part of the information content of the solution which is due to the observations. Some further meteorological applications of the method are discussed.