MetOffice / MetOffice/CSET

Back trajectory capability

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#1,496 3 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@jwarner8 is already working on this.

Since Jul 8, 2025.

enhancement
Dominant language
Python
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33
Forks
19
Avg merge
1d 22h
Merged PRs (30d)
30

Description

A really useful tool for evaluating models is understanding where the air originated at some given point in the forecast, to understand airmass properties influencing a region. I've seen a lot of analysis using back trajectories in the recent RMetS conference, and also used routinely in operational guidance such as attached below.

In theory all we need is U,V,W and geopotential height on a reasonable pressure level set (16 levels) with a reasonable temporal resolution (min 3 hourly). The code to do this is essentially the age of air diagnostic, which already calculates back trajectories to the lateral boundary.

A big question is how we visualise data, and how this would fit in with existing plots in CSET...

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