Variación interanual de la temperatura en Costa Rica

Se hace un análisis de las variaciones interanuales de la temperatura máxima, temperatura mínima, rango diurno de temperatura (RDT) y temperatura media en Costa Rica, utilizando 23 estaciones representativas de diferentes regiones del país. Como patrón general se encuentra una tendencia negativa del RDT, al cual contribuye grandemente la temperatura mínima y no tanto la temperatura máxima. Con relación a la temperatura media, 12 estaciones muestran tendencia positiva y 11 tendencia negativa. Esto indica que si bien se ha señalado una tendencia positiva de la temperatura media a nivel global, a nivel regional y en áreas tan pequeñas como Costa Rica hay variaciones muysignificativas. En ausencia de datos de nubosidad, se obtuvieron correlaciones del RDT con el brillo solar y del RDT con la lluvia. Estas correlaciones son pequeñas y no permiten inferir que el patrón de disminución del RDT se deba a un aumento en la nubosidad (AU)

Recent progress in the operational forecasting of summer severe weather

Summer severe weather (SSW) can strike suddlenly and unexpectedly with disastrous consequences for human activity. Considerable progress has been made in the past ten years in the operational forescating of SSW. Traditionally, SSW was defined to consist of tornadoes, strong winds, hail, lightning and heavy rain. Hazardous types of strong winds have recently been expanded to include microbursts, macrobursts and surfacing rear inflow jet damage behind mesoscale convective systems...(AU)

Radar for weather surveillance

A weather radar is one of the most powerful tools to survey typhoons and local downpours, which are responsible for the most of weather - caused damage in Japan. This article first shows the principle of a radar device, and then outline its typical application to such fields as typhoon watch and thunderhead detection. another important application to flood warning has been described in the 1983 version (volume 7) by the present author (AU)

A comparison among the different types of conformal map projections

different types of conformal map projections, which are mostly used in meteorology, are presented and compared against each ather. The main criterium used is the calculation of the scale factor as a function of geographical latitude. Since the studing area of interest lies at middle latitudes, the Lambert II conical projection is shown to be the more preferable than the other types of projections and particularly to the stereographic one, which is widely used. Hence, the Lamber II conical is adopted and incorporated to an appropriate objective analysis scheme (AU)

Determination of surface Albedo for agroclimatological uses

spatial temporal and spectral resolutions of meteorological satellites make them suitable for near - real - time albedo mapping over large areas, particularly at a regional scale. This work refers to an application of the "minimum - radiance" method to METEOSAT WEFAX - format images directly received at a SECONDARY DATA USER STATION (SDUS) for the obtention of semiquantitative albedo maps in the agricultural region of Valencia (Spain). (AU)

Expert judgment and climate forecasting : A methodological critique of "climate change to the year 2000"

The national defense university's study of climate change to the year 2000 was based largely on the judgments of the members of two experts panels. Although the study has been widely destributed and apparently read by policy makers in the U.S. and abroad, the method of eliciting and analyzing expert judgment has not been critically reviewed. This paper uses the literature on judgment has not been critically reviewed. This paper uses the literature on judgment and subjective probability to evaluate the expert judgment used in the study (AU)