ESS227
Prof. Jin-Yi Yu
What does it mean?
•A counter-clockwise circulation (i.e., sea breeze) will
develop in which lighter fluid
(the warmer land air; T2) is made
to rise and heavier fluid (the
colder sea air; T1) is made
to sink.
•The effect is this circulation will be to tilt the
isopycnals into an
oritentation in which they are more nearly parallel with the isobars – that is, toward the barotropic state, in which
subsequent circulation change would
be zero.
•Such a circulation also lowers the center of mass of the
fluid system and thus reduces
the potential energy of that system.