What are Hovmoller Diagrams?

[cycloneye]

I see that term used many times when a new tropical wave is introduced after emerging Africa.Below is an example:

TROPICAL WAVE IS INTRODUCED ALONG 17W S OF 21N MOVING W 10 KT
BASED ON SATELLITE IMAGERY...SURFACE OBSERVATIONS...UPPER AIR
SOUNDINGS...(AND HOVMOLLER DIAGRAMS). WIDELY SCATTERED MODERATE
CONVECTION IS FROM 10N-17N BETWEEN 12W-17W.

If the pro mets can chim in and field this question I will learn about it and I am sure the majority of the members may want to know too what it is.

[P.K.]

Hovmoller diagrams are fun. Right I'll post an example of one from the NOAA ENSO update. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_update/ssttlon5_c.gif

It is a good way of displaying lots of data on a single diagram, in this case showing SSTs across a line in the Pacific over the period of a year.

[brunota2003]

http://serc.carleton.edu:81/introgeo/te ... oller.html
Even though P.K. beat me, here is another link

[wxman57]

You can follow an MJO from the Indian Ocean, across the Pacific, and into the Atlantic Basin using a Hovmoller diagram. Date goes from top to bottom, latitude from left to right. The blue streaks going from the upper left to the lower right are MJOs tracking eastward across the Pacific.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/p ... _order.gif

[clfenwi]

This is the sort of product that the discussion refers to:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/tafb_latest/m8hov1latest.gif

The diagrams are available for the other parts of the Atlantic basin as well:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/tafb_latest/gehov1latest.gif

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/tafb_latest/gehov2latest.gif

And also the Eastern Pacific:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/tafb_latest/gwhov1latest.gif

[cycloneye]

Thanks to all for the answers.