Abstract:Based on the radiosonde and reanalysis data from NCEP/NCAR, ERA and JRA, by using deviation, linear trend, EOF statistics methods, the applicability evaluation of the atmospheric geopotential heights in China is conducted in this paper. Results indicate that the annual mean geopotential heights are going up in the troposphere while a drop exists in the tropopause and lower stratosphere over the northern China. An in-phase variation in geopotential heights over the whole troposphere on interannual time scale and an anti-phase one over the north and south China on decadal time-scale are obvious. Generally, the geopotential height values of the three reanalysis datasets are lower than that of observation, among them, the NCEP geopotential height is the closest to the observation. In terms of seasonal mean field, geopotential heights show an upward trend in the troposphere in winter, while in other seasons, the trend is consistent with that of annual mean field. In addition, the smallest deviation between radiosonde and reanalysis datasets appears in winter. Overall, NCEP geopotential heights agree well with the observed ones in spring, summer and winter, while ERA performs much better in autumn.