Surface wind and geostrophic flow

Announcement
Midterm October 15, Thursday In class, about an hour Intended to be a non-traumatic experience Will cover all material to this point (lecture, homework, reading) From text, Chapters 1 - 4.

From previous lectures

Over turning of the atmosphere: the Hadley cells Come about because: heating/cooling leads to expansion of atmospheric column Pressure differences at high altitude lead to outflow in the topics Causes surface low in the tropics In turn, causes inflow/convergence in the tropic (i.e., the Intertropical Convergence Zone - ITCZ) Coriolis effect causes us to see objects that are moving to bend to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

Consider the speed of a dish

If the dish is rotating the outside is moving faster than the inside Consider a ball traveling as fast as the edge of the dish Relative to the edge of the dish, the ball is not moving since it is the same speed. Now move it the ball inward The ball is now moving faster than the dish! As it moved from the edge to the interior, it would seem to accelerate It would accelerate to the RIGHT of the motion

Surface wind: January

NOAA Physical Sciences Division/CIRES

Surface wind: July

NOAA Physical Sciences Division/CIRES

Climate zones and surface winds

Polar regions high pressure, surface divergence, descent, snow fall due to mid-latitude storms moving poleward, weak easterly wind. Mid-latitudes low pressure systems, surface convergence, ascent, rain associated with cold fronts, very strong westerly wind

Extra tropics descending air, high pressure, surface divergence, few clouds, low rainfall, almost no wind (deserts, arid regions, the doldrums)
ITCZ ascending air, low pressure, surface convergence, lots of clouds and rain fall, easterly winds (lush rainforests, monsoons)

Surface pressure and surface wind Wind always spiraling out from high, spiraling in to lows

Direction different for highs and low Direction different for Northern and Southern hemispheres

Surface wind: East/west flow

Argh, me knows the wind pattern

January July Different directions related to pressure differences (i.e., location of highs and lows) But flow is mostly east/west, even though pressure differences largest in north/south direction Can we explain this with the Coriolis force?

 For energy balance: When incoming = outgoing For wind balance: (When push comes to shove!) Or. force to the left= force to the right i.e., acceleration = deceleration
heating cooling
acceleration Temperature Wind speed deceleration

Balance for wind

Energy

Momentum

Remember Newtons 2nd Law: If you want it to move push it! ( and push harder than the other guy!)

Atmospheric motion and forces

Forces make things move In the atmosphere (and ocean)

1) Pressure gradient force Things are pushed from high to low pressure
2) Coriolis force Things that are moving are pushed to the right (in the northern hemisphere) Pressure force Coriolis force

High

Wind speed

Low

Balanced!

Why does the Coriolis effect bend motion to the left in the Southern Hemisphere?
A. It doesnt the Coriolis effect is always to the right B. Because looking down from the South pole the earth rotates clockwise C. Because looking down from the South pole the earth rotates counter clockwise D. Because it is warmer to the north, while in the northern hemisphere it is warmer to the south E. Because Gustave de Coriolis was from Australia

Prove it Scott!
Can make Coriolis forces on a table. So can we make geostrophic flow?
(Need Coriolis AND pressure force) Remember, mass of atmosphere is related to pressure. So deeper atmosphere means high pressure What is the depth profile in the experiment?

Force balance
Low pressure V V Balanced V

Isobars (lines of constant pressure)

High pressure

Lows and highs (NH)

Highs PGF pushes out (to low) Coriolis pushes in (right of motion) Air spins clockwise (in NH) Flow spirals out (slightly) H

Lows PGF pushes in (from high) Coriolis pushes out (right of motion) Flow spirals in (slightly)

L V

Geostrophic balance
Pressure gradient force exactly balances with Coriolis force So wind moves parallel to isobars

Geostrophic flow

Geopotential height: since pressure and higher are related, we can look at the height of a pressure level

Todays weather map http://wxmaps.org (surface)

Todays weather map (upper air)

Pressure (and spin)

Wind speed and arrows

Geopotential height: since pressure and higher are related, we can look at the height of a pressure level

Todays upper level flow

Northern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere

The westerly winds

Gives rise to westerlies outside the tropics

The jetstream is in geostrophic balance

LOW

HIGH

Final answer

Why does the Coriolis effect bend motion to the left in the Southern Hemisphere?
A. It doesnt the Coriolis effect is always to the right B. Because looking down from the South pole the earth rotates clockwise C. Because looking down from the South pole the earth rotates counter clockwise D. Because it is warmer to the north, while in the northern hemisphere it is warmer to the south E. Because Gustave de Coriolis was from Australia

Remember the energy budget

Argued that we require poleward heat/energy transport

Because of the Coriolis force and geostrophic balance, the wind in the subtropics is expected to be purely westerly. A paradox! No heat can be transported to the polar regions. Explain!?
a) b) c) d) e) The tropics are not in energy balance The ocean is be responsible for heat/energy transport outside of the tropics The tropics must get very cloudy so that the albedo is high and there is a local energy balance There must be some other way that the atmospheric motions can occur in the north/south direction Somebody ships sugar cane (Snickers) from Brazil to the US every day.

Key points
Coriolis force is stronger for faster moving air (but still exactly to the right NH, or left in SH) As air moves from high to low, it accelerates and turns with a Coriolis force Eventually there is a balance between the pressure force and the Coriolis force This is the geostrophic balance

This means the wind follows isobars Also the wind is stronger where the pressure differences are larger
This explains why heating in the tropics and cooling in the poles leads to winds which are mostly in the east/west direction And, we need something else to explain the heat/energy transport in mid latitudes! (A weather machine might do it!)