def needs_transpose(aer):
    """
    Returns
         True  if aer object has shapes (nobs,km)
         False if aer object has shapes (km,nobs)
    This is needed to cope with the way the fortran expects
    the data arrays.
    """
    if aer.PS.shape[0] == aer.DELP.shape[0]: # (nobs,km)
        return True
    else:
        return False