Synopsis: Chapter 3introduces the different instrumentation for in-situ and remotely sensed observations, for operational/routine uses as well as special field collection. The placement of such instruments in observation networks is justified using sampling theory, and then is illustrated by example networks from past field programs. Finally, the spatial analysis of the data is motivated and described.

Introduction

This chapter provides an introduction to the data collection and analysis that underlie much of the discussion in subsequent chapters. For example, in Chapter 4 we will describe how observational data are used to provide the initial and boundary conditions for numerical weather prediction and simulation models. The characteristics of phenomena such as thunderstorm gust fronts (Chapters 5–6), supercells (Chapter 7), squall lines (Chapter 8), and mesoscale convective vortices (Chapter 9) are revealed by analysis techniques that extract the scale-relevant information obtained from appropriately configured observing systems.