Geografie 2016, 121, 300-323
Classifications of atmospheric circulation
The goal of the present article is to provide a brief overview of the development and usage of classifications of atmospheric circulation, particularly classifications of circulation patterns. In the first section, the motivation to conduct research into atmospheric circulation and the role of classifications in this research are discussed. In addition, basic approaches to classification are described. In the second section, manual classification methods are introduced; the focus is on those methods that have been widely used in the Czech literature – the synoptic catalogues of Brádka and Hess-Brezowsky. To our knowledge, such an overview has not been published yet. In the third section, the development of automated methods is described and the most commonly used methods are briefly introduced. We conclude with an overview of one of the fastest developing fields in synoptic climatology – the application of circulation classifications to climate modelling.
