ESS228
Prof. Jin-Yi Yu
Goals of
this Chapter
•This chapter marks the beginning of more detailed study
of the way the atmosphere-ocean
system tends to adjust to
equilibrium.
•The adjustment processes are most easily understood in
the absence of driving
forces. Suppose, for instance, that the sun is "switched off,"
leaving the atmosphere and
ocean with some non-equilibrium distribution of properties.
•How will they respond to the gravitational restoring
force?
•Presumably there will be an adjustment to some sort of
equilibrium. If so, what is the
nature of the equilibrium?
•In this chapter, complications due to the rotation and
shape of the earth will be
ignored and only small departures from the hydrostatic equilibrium will be considered.
•The nature of the adjustment processes will be found by
deduction from the equations of
motion