Abstract
The sea level pressure and surface wind fields operationally produced at Fleet Numerical Weather Central are adjusted by using numerical variational analysis. The analysis region is a global band extending from 40S to 6ON and the successive corrections method is used to generate the initial or input fields. These fields are then adjusted within the framework of the variational method by requiring that they satisfy certain governing dynamical equations.
A detailed study of this method is made in the Atlantic Ocean region on 4 January 1971. There is convincing evidence that small-scale wind information is incorporated into the pressure field and that the adjusted wind field has been modified to account for ageostrophic motion.
