Model for Estimating Meteorological Profiles from Shipboard Observations.

A model is presented which estimates the vertical profiles of air temperature, relative humidity, and water-vapor density within the lowest 2 kilometers of the marine atmosphere. Inputs to the model are a subset of standard marine surface observations, obtainable from ships throughout the world ocean. The 1977 EOMET cruise of the USNS Hayes provided a set of kite-balloon measurements of air temperature, relative humidity, and water-vapor density together with standard marine surface observations throughout the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The model estimates of the meteorological parameters are compared with simultaneously obtained in-situ measurements for 56 flights. In some cases agreement is good, but when the profiles change during the 50 minutes required for a kit-balloon measurement, comparison with the static model becomes invalid. (Author)