On the Accuracy of AIr Trajectory Computations

The accuracy of the horizontal meteorological trajectories is investigated in respect to several influential factors. The conclusions are based on “objective” trajectories computed by the electronic computer. It was found that the major inaccuracies in the trajectory computations lie in the sparsity of the observing points in most parts of the world and in the choice of the wind approximation. There appear only small trajectory errors due to the time interpolation between the observing hours, to the truncation in the numerical work and to the turbulent-wind components.