The potential reconnaissance role of an aircraft in identifying weather change lines over the ocean is examined using data collected during Phases II and III of the Cold Fronts Research Programme. It is shown that the mesoscale structure of a change line can be identified by measuring dry and wet bulb temperatures, wind speed and wind direction, at intervals of two minutes or less at a speed of 300 km h-1 Sampling over longer intervals is likely to give inadequate resolution. The optimum flight level is close to 500 m. Three cases are presented which show that most of the change lines correlate with either satellite or radar pictures. It is proposed that the aircraft flight strategy and the subsequent flight analysis should be modelled on one of four types of meteorological situation, (a) a complex cool change that develops on a prefrontal trough (Type 1), (b) a single line cool change that develops on a prefrontal trough (Type 2), (c) a cool change associated with a southern ocean front and (d) a cool change that develops on a coastal trough.
Ryan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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