Spatial and temporal averaging of observational data is widely used in many problems of meteorology, hydrology and related sciences. Several averaging methods have been proposed by various scientists and are used on a regular basis to obtain data averaged in space orfand in time, to yield data which are less influenced by random factors than initial point data are. The significance of averaging meteorological fields has substantially increased nowadays in connection with the problem of global climate change. However important as such change may be, it is very small as compared with the...

This book gives a comprehensive and detailed discussion of statistical averaging of meteorological fields, with assessments of associated errors. A great deal of work on the subject, conducted in the former Soviet Union by the author, is available in English for the first time with this translation. Particularly important is the method of optimal averaging which is developed and examined. This work should be useful to those conducting climate monitoring or climate change studies, which often require spatial averaging to detect slight changes. Studies conducted by the author allow increased...