Generalized Method of Variational Analysis for 3-D Flow

The generalized method of variational analysis (GMVA) suggested for 2-D wind observations by Huang et al. is extended to 3-D cases. Just as in 2-D cases, the regularization idea is applied. But due to the complexity of the 3-D cases, the vertical vorticity is taken as a stable functional. The results indicate that wind observations can be both variationally optimized and filtered. The efficiency of GMVA is also checked in a numerical test. Finally, 3-D wind observations with random disturbances are manipulated by GMVA after being filtered.