Thermal front parameter

The thermal front parameter (TFP) is a helpful parameter in meteorology for the analysis and visualization of fronts in the results of computer simulations of the weather. Mathematically it can be expressed as follows:

${\displaystyle TFP=-\nabla \left|\nabla \,T\right|\cdot {\frac {\nabla \,T}{\left|\nabla \,T\right|}}}$

Where:

• ${\displaystyle \left|\nabla \,T\right|}$- amount of the gradient of the temperature

• ${\displaystyle -\nabla \left|\nabla \,T\right|}$- Change of the temperature gradient, compare the use of the Laplace operator in edge detection

• ${\displaystyle {\frac {\nabla \,T}{\left|\nabla \,T\right|}}}$- Projection in the direction of the temperature gradient

A cold front is defined as the limit from which the temperature falls and a warm front as the limit at which the temperature rise is complete.