The effects of bad and/or missing data on output from ADAP

With the development of objective analysis programs such as the AFOS Data Analysis Programs or ADAP (Bothwell 1988), the operational forecaster now has the means to evaluate the state of the atmosphere in real-time on a smaller scale than ever before. Different analysis fields can be created by blending time and distance weighting of surface and upper-air observations (Doswell, 1977 and Bothwell et. al. 1985). Objective analysis programs can paint a picture of the atmosphere on a sub-synoptic scale, and track how that picture is changing from hour to hour. In the future, with increased computer power and advanced remote sensing technology, the forecaster will be able to examine atmospheric features on even smaller spatial and temporal scales. One of the greatest limiting factors on the reliability of these objective analysis programs is, and will continue to be, the availability and quality of the observations that support them.