SIMPLE, FAST AND ACCURATE PROCEDURE FOR INITIALIZATION OF A LIMITED-AREA MODEL.

Despite the continuing advances in computer power, the need to make short-range (0-48 h) forecasts of sub-synoptic and mesoscale phenomena will mandate the use of regional-scale models for many years to come. If reliable 6-12 h forecast products are desired, then initialization of these models remains an important problem. The goal of the initialization procedure is to suppress the initial growth of gravity waves due to mass-wind field imbalances while minimizing the differences between the original and adjusted data. Washington and Baumhefner proposed a straightforward initialization procedure in which the integrated divergence is set equal to zero at each grid point and consistent wind velocities are obtained. The purpose of the work presented here is to modify the Washington and Baumhefner procedure such that the method becomes faster while also significantly reducing the difference between the original and adjusted fields.