ATOC 1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Pressure-Gradient Force, Geopotential, Fluid Parcel
29 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Isobars: lines connecting places of equal air pressure. Pressure gradient: the spacing of the isobars indicates the amount of pressure change over a given distance, which is known as the pressure gradient. If earth didn"t rotate and if there was no friction, the air would flow directly from high to low pressure areas. Friction: if the pressure gradient force were only force on the atmosphere, winds would continuously get faster. Friction prevents this from happening and greatly influences the airflow near the earth"s surface. On the other hand, friction is negligible above a height of a few kilometers. Troughs: in the geopotential height contours indicate regions of low heights (or low pressure) Ridges: in the geopotential height contours indicate regions of high heights (or high pressure) Winds on upper level weather maps tend to flow parallel to the geopotential height contours. Winds that flow parallel to the geopotential height contours are considered to be in quasi-geostrophic balance.
