DISCUSSION FOR HOMEWORK #5 Thurs 1iii2001

#1b. The whole idea of rotating coordinate systems and observers comes up here. What system is the guy, flying eastward, in ?

#2. The stratosphere is a region of rapid radiative temperature change, and dynamics follows quickly. See, e.g., Salby's Introduction to Atmospheric Physics Ch.1 and 17 (tje 'middle atmosphere'). A section showing zonal mean temperature in northern winter gives you an idea of the north-south temperature gradient. It is less, about 10C than I said, on the sheet between the North Pole and 60N (I used a time-series of 50mb temp through the year, which has about a 30C range).

So use this and the corresponding zonal wind section to explore thermal wind balance. The interesting thing is to compare the actual temperature structure with that which would occur with radiative equilibrium (no flow dynamics)..but that's another story. For todays 50mb temp map go to
www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/current_temperature/index.html

#3. check the signs following yesterdays lecture (click on Homework#5 on this page)

#4. We will do the basic Rossby wave Friday 2iii2001