Simulated annealing and weather regimes classification

A new approach based on the travelling salesman problem and simulated annealing is used to classify weather maps and to associate them with weather regimes. The usual classification methods are able to identify the preferred patterns of large-scale atmospheric flow. They fail, however, in characterizing the boundaries of various regimes which are generally a result of the geometrical constraints imposed by the chosen method. The method is aimed at overcoming this difficulty and helping to define the boundaries between weather regimes in order to study the characteristics of and transitions between these regimes. -from Authors