ESS227
Prof. Jin-Yi Yu
Vertical
Motions
•For synoptic-scale motions, the vertical velocity
component is typically
of the order of a few centimeters per second. Routine meteorological soundings, however, only give the wind
speed to an accuracy of about
a meter per second.
•Thus, in general the vertical velocity is not measured
directly but must be inferred
from the fields that are measured directly.
•Two commonly used methods for inferring the vertical
motion field are (1) the kinematic method, based on the equation of continuity, and (2) the adiabatic method, based
on the thermodynamic energy
equation.