ATOC 1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Coriolis Force, Centripetal Force, Northern Hemisphere
4 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Jet streams in both hemispheres: jet streams are swiftly flowing currents of air that move in a wavy west-to-east direction. They are discontinuous with their position varying from one day to the next. Winds on a weather map: geostrophic winds exist in location where there are no frictional forces and the isobars are straight. However, isobars are almost always curved and are very rarely evenly spaced. This changes the geostrophic winds so that they re no longer geostrophic but are instead in gradient wind balance. Gradient winds: still blow parallel to isobars, but are no longer balanced by only the pgf and the cf, and do not have the same velocity as geostrophic winds. The difference between the pgf and the cf is an inward pointing net force. This force is called the centripetal force: around a high pressure system, the cf directed inwards must be greater than the pgf directed outwards.
