Summary
Principal components analysis and cluster analysis are used to derive airmass types based on surface meteorological data for the Birmingham area. UK. Airmass types are analysed in terms of their climatological, meteorological and air pollution characteristics. Continental anticyclonic airmass types are identified as producing high pollution concentration events, whereas, maritime cyclonic types, characterised by strong westerly flows are associated with low levels of atmospheric pollutants.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barry, R. G., Perry, A. H., 1973:Synoptic Climatology: London: Methuen.
Christiansen, W. L., Bryson, R. A., 1966: An investigation of the potential of component analysis for weather classification.Mon. Wea. Rev. 94, 697–707.
Comrie, A. C., 1992: An enhanced synoptic climatology of ozone using a sequencing technique.Phys. Geogr. 13, 53–65.
Davis, R. E., 1988: The development of a spatial synoptic climatological index for environmental analysis. PhD. dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware.
Davis, R. E., Kalkstein, L. S., 1990a: Development of an automated spatial synoptic climatological classification.Int. J. Climatol. 10, 769–794.
Davis, R. E., Kalkstein, L. S., 1990b: Using a spatial synoptic climatological classification to assess changes in atmospheric pollution concentrations.Phys. Geogr. 11, 320–342.
Davis, R. E., Gay, D. A., 1993: An assessment of air quality variations in the south-western United States using an upper air synoptic climatology.Int. J. Climatol. 13, 755–781.
Davies, T. D., Dorling, S. R., Pierce, C. E., Barthelmie, R. J., Farmer, G., 1991: The meteorological control on the anthropogenic ion content of precipitation at there sites in the UK: utility of Lamb weather types.Int. J. Climatol. 11, 795–807.
Davies, T. D., Tranter, M., Jickells, T. D., Abrahams, P. W., Landsberger, S., Jarvis, K., Pierce, C., 1992a: Heavily contaminated snowfalls in the remote Scottish Highlands: a consequence of regional scale mixing and transport.Atmos. Environ. 26A(1), 95–112.
Davies, T. D., Kelly, P. M., Low, P. S., Pierce, C., 1992b: Surface ozone concentrations in Europe: links with the regional scale atmospheric circulation.J. Geophys. Res. 97(D9), 9819–9832.
Dorling, S. R., Davies, T. D., Pierce, C., 1992: Cluster analysis: a technique for estimating the synoptic meteorological controls on air and precipitation chemistry — results from Eskdalemuir, Scotland.Atmos. Environ. 26A(14), 2583–2602.
El-Kadi, A. K. A., Smithson, P. A., 1992: Atmospheric classification and synoptic climatology.Progr. Phys. Geogr. 16(4), 432–455.
Ezcurra, A., Casado, H., Lacaux, J. P., Garcia, C., 1988: Relationships between meteorological situations and acid rain in Spanish Basque country.Atmos. Environ. 22 2779–2786.
Gower, J. C., Banfield, C. F., 1975: Goodness of fit criteria for hierarchial classification and their empirical distributions. In: Proceedings of the International Biometric Conference, Rayleigh, North Carolina, 347–362.
Jolliffe, I. T., 1990: Principal component analysis: a beginners guide.Weather 45, 375–253.
Jolliffe, I. T., 1993: Principal components analysis: a beginners guide II.Weather 48, 246–253.
Kalkstein, L. S., Corrigan, P., 1986: A synoptic climatological approach for geographical analysis: assessment of sulphur dioxide concentrations.Ann. Assoc, Amer. Geogr. 76, 381–395.
Kalkstein, L. S., Skindlov, J. A., Sutherland, J. L., 1990: A synoptic evaluation of winter SCENES air quality data. In: Mathai, J. A. (ed.)Visibility and Fine Particles. Trans. Air Waste Manag. Assoc., pp 518–526.
Kalkstein, L. S., Tan, G., Skindlov, J. A., 1987: An evaluation of three clustering procedures for use in synoptic climatological classification.J. Climate Appl. Meteor. 26, 717–730.
Kalkstein, L. S., Webber, S. R., 1990: A detailed evaluation of SCENES air quality data northern Arizona using a three dimensional synoptic approach. Publications in Climatology XLIII, no. 1, Laboratory of Climatology, Centre for Climatic Research, University of Delaware.
Ladd, J. W., Driscoll, D. M., 1980: A comparison of objective and subjective means of weather typing, an example from west Texas.J. Appl. Meteor. 19, 691–704.
Lund, I. A., 1963: Map-pattern classification by statistical methods.J. Meteorol. 2, 56–65.
Mayes, J. C., 1991: Regional airflow patterns in the British Isles.Int. J. Climatol. 11, 473–491.
North, G. R., Bell, T. L., Cahalan, T. R., 1982: Sampling errors in the estimation of empirical orthogonal functions.Mon. Wea. Rev. 110, 699–706.
Preisendorfer, R. W., 1988:Principal Components Analysis in Meteorology and Oceanography. New York: Elsevier.
QUARG, 1993: Urban Air Quality in the United Kingdom. Report of the Quality of Urban Air Review Group, Department of Environment, UK.
Richman, M. B., 1981: Obliquely rotated principal components — an improved meteorological map typing technique.J. Appl. Meteor. 20, 1145–1159.
Richman, M. B., 1986: Rotation of principal components.Int. J. Climatol. 6, 293–335.
Richman, M. B., Gong, X., 1992: Cluster analysis of growing season precipitation in central and eastern North America. Proceedings 16th Annual Climate Diagnostics Workshop (in press).
Stone, R. C., 1989: Weather types at Brisbane, Queensland: an example of the use of principal components and cluster analysis.Int. J. Climatol. 9, 3–32.
Sweeney, J. C., O'Hare, G. P., 1992: Geographical variations in precipitation yields and circulation types in Britain and Ireland.Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. 17, 448–463.
Todhunter, P. E., 1989: An approach to the variability of urban surface energy budgets under stratified synoptic weather types.Int. J. Climatol. 9, 191–201.
Tukey, J. W., 1953:The Problem of Multiple Comparisons. Ditto: Princeton University.
White, D., Richman, M. B., Yarnal, B., 1991: Climate regionalization and rotation of principal componets.Int. J. Climatol. 11, 1–25.
Yarnal, B., 1992:Synoptic Climatology in Environmental Analysis, London: Belhaven Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
With 3 Figures
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McGregor, G.R., Bamzelis, D. Synoptic typing and its application to the investigation of weather air pollution relationships, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Theor Appl Climatol 51, 223–236 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00867281
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00867281