Table of contents : Front Matter....Pages i-3 An Overview of Meteorological Data Assimilation....Pages 5-16 A Review of Methods for Objective Analysis....Pages 17-76 The Normal Mode Approach to the Initialization Problem....Pages 77-109 Assimilation of Asynoptic Data and the Initialization Problem....Pages 111-138 Applications of Estimation Theory to Numerical Weather Prediction....Pages 139-224 Convergence of Assimilation Procedures....Pages 225-262 Some Climatological and Energy Budget Calculations using the FGGE III-b Analyses During January 1979....Pages 263-318 Back Matter....Pages 319-330