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Minimizing Common Errors When Projecting Geospatial Data Onto a Vortex‐Centered Space
Author(s) -
Ahern Kyle,
Cowan Levi
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl079953
Subject(s) - azimuth , radius , geospatial analysis , equidistant , latitude , geographic coordinate system , projection (relational algebra) , geodesy , vortex , data set , range (aeronautics) , physics , meteorology , geology , geophysics , remote sensing , computer science , mathematics , geometry , algorithm , statistics , astronomy , computer security , materials science , composite material
Abstract The problem of transforming geospatial data into polar coordinates, a common task in the analysis of data centered on geophysical phenomena, is examined. The azimuthal equidistant projection is shown to be the optimal transform for this purpose. A mathematical and observational analysis of the errors incurred by using a common alternative transform is conducted and reveals that such errors can be significant at radii as small as a few hundred kilometers. When evaluating observed 200‐hPa wind fields near Atlantic tropical cyclones (TCs), median azimuthal maximum errors in total and radial wind range up to 10% within 700 km of the TC and up to 50% within 1,600 km of the TC. Errors are shown to depend strongly on the statistical characteristics of the data set and increase nonlinearly with latitude and radius.