BAMOS Vol 31 Special Issue October 2018 Bulletin Vol 31 Special Issue 01 2018 | Page 11

BAMOS
Special Issue
Figure 2. Operational weather map, showing the wind field
at 500hPa on 5 June 2018. Resolved features include the
subtropical jet, the polar frontal jet, jet max or jet cores, an
active low mid-latitude cyclone south of Western Australia,
and a split jet blocking configuration over eastern Australia.
Source: Bureau of Meteorology.
The revolution in our ability to observe the
atmosphere and ocean
When I was a mid-career meteorologist 30 years ago, weather
maps were still largely hand-drawn. Forecasts and research
studies were based on the maps; but they were a guidance. A
weather map was never interpreted in the absence of looking
carefully at the plotted observations.
30 years later, we all download reanalysis data from the internet,
and look at the structure of developing weather systems from
the operational daily analyses, such as is shown in Figure 2
above. This change has been dominated by the orders of
magnitude increase in the amount of remote-sensed satellite
data, and in advances in data assimilation. The widespread use
by both forecasters and the public of meteorological radar is
also revolutionary. The first public digital radar displays also
occurred within the past 30 years.
The advances in observation and analysis capability for
the oceans are even more profound. The first large-scale
deployment of surface drifting buoys occured during the 1979
Global Weather Experiment. The Global Ocean Observing
System was formally initiated in 1990. The first ARGO floats
were deployed in 2001. Figure 3 below shows the present
distribution of operational oceanographic observations.
Figure 3. Ocean observations during the month of April 2018.
Source: The Global Ocean Observing System.
11