Using Tropopause Maps to Diagnose Midlatitude Weather Systems

Abstract

The use of potential vorticity (PV) allows the efficient description of the dynamics of nearly balanced atmospheric flow phenomena, but the distribution of PV must be simply represented for ease in interpretation. Representations of PV on isentropic or isobaric surfaces can be cumbersome, as analyses of several surfaces spanning the troposphere must be constructed to fully apprehend the complete PV distribution.