12.804: Geostrophic/agestrophic flow

In this project we will use upper air and surface data to study the connection between the wind and the pressure field on the large scale to check how close they are to geostrophic balance.

Make use of 'Custom Plots' from the Synoptic Laboratory web to produce the following plots:

Geostrophic wind:  500mb height and wind 

Gradient wind: 700mb height and wind
Examples:
Hurricane Katrina (Sept'05) - NASA-EO, NCDC
Hurricane John (Aug'06) - NASA-EO
Super-typhoon Ioke (Sept'06) - NASA-EO

Ekman Layer: surface pressure and wind

Back to 12.804: Atmosphere