Unbiased station grid for study of the kinetic energy balance of the atmosphere

Summary

For the past several years observational studies of the northern hemisphere kinetic energy balance and related subjects have been performed by the Planetary Circulation Project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Numerous integrals required were recently evaluated directly from a five-year period of observations using a network of nearly 800 stations. The stations, however, are concentrated primarily over temperate latitude continents, and the data from maritime and tropical areas were comparatively sparse. The question then arises whether the results are representative. The problem discussed in this paper is to select a subset of more uniformly spaced stations and to recompute the zonal kinetic energy balance. This is accomplished and the results are presented herewith.