Simplified approach for understanding fluid motions in a rotating system
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In fluid mechanics, potential vorticity (PV) is a quantity which is proportional to the dot product of vorticity and stratification. This quantity, following a parcel of air or water, can only be changed by diabatic or frictional processes. It is a useful concept for understanding the generation of vorticity in cyclogenesis (the birth and development of a cyclone), especially along the polar front, and in analyzing flow in the ocean.
Potential vorticity (PV) is seen as one of the important theoretical successes of modern meteorology. It is a simplified approach for understanding fluid motions in a rotating system such as the Earth's atmosphere and ocean. Its development traces back to the circulation theorem by Bjerknes in 1898,[1] which is a specialized form of Kelvin's circulation theorem. Starting from Hoskins et al., 1985,[2] PV has been more commonly used in operational weather diagnosis such as tracing dynamics of air parcels and inverting for the full flow field. Even after detailed numerical weather forecasts on finer scales were made possible by increases in computational power, the PV view is still used in academia and routine weather forecasts, shedding light on the synoptic scale features for forecasters and researchers.[3]
Baroclinic instability requires the presence of a potential vorticity gradient along which waves amplify during cyclogenesis.
^Thorpe, A. J.; Volkert, H.; Ziemianski, M. J. (2003). "The Bjerknes' Circulation Theorem: A Historical Perspective" (PDF). Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 84 (4): 471–480. Bibcode:2003BAMS...84..471T. doi:10.1175/BAMS-84-4-471.
^Hoskins, B. J.; McIntyre, M. E.; Robertson, A. W. (1985). "On the use and significance of isentropic potential vorticity maps". Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 111 (470): 877–946. Bibcode:1985QJRMS.111..877H. doi:10.1002/qj.49711147002.
^Nielsen-Gammon, J. W.; Gold, D. A. (2006). "Dynamical Diagnosis: A Comparison of Quasigeostrophy and Ertel Potential Vorticity". Meteorol. Monogr. 55 (55): 183–202. Bibcode:2008MetMo..33..183N. doi:10.1175/0065-9401-33.55.183.
and 29 Related for: Potential vorticity information
In fluid mechanics, potentialvorticity (PV) is a quantity which is proportional to the dot product of vorticity and stratification. This quantity, following...
vorticity in the flow. In the figure below, the left subfigure demonstrates no vorticity, and the right subfigure demonstrates existence of vorticity...
In fluid dynamics, potential flow or irrotational flow refers to a description of a fluid flow with no vorticity in it. Such a description typically arises...
by the Coriolis force and conservation of potentialvorticity which leads to changes of relative vorticity. This is analogous to conservation of angular...
tropopause surface is expressed in potentialvorticity units (PVU, 1 PVU = 10-6 K m2 kg-1 s-1). Given that the absolute vorticity is positive in the Northern...
incompressible, the Laplacian of the velocity potential must be zero: Δ Φ = 0. {\displaystyle \Delta \Phi =0.} The vorticity, ω {\displaystyle \omega } , of a flow...
is formed by our vortex in the existing chaos.' Lewis saw the potential of 'Vorticism' as an exciting rallying call that was also sufficiently vague...
vertical length scale), potentialvorticity is a function of relative (local) vorticity ζ {\displaystyle \zeta } , planetary vorticity f {\displaystyle f}...
Chou, Kun-Hsuan (July 2003). "A New Look at the Binary Interaction: PotentialVorticity Diagnosis of the Unusual Southward Movement of Tropical Storm Bopha...
convective instability; likewise, Rossby waves are said to break when the potentialvorticity gradient is overturned. Wave breaking also occurs in plasmas, when...
conservation of potentialvorticity caused by the northward-moving winds on the subtropical ridge's western periphery and the increased relative vorticity of northward-moving...
the vertically propagating planetary waves and the isolated high potentialvorticity region known as the polar vortex. The resultant breaking causes large-scale...
the mechanism by which vorticity is generated. Vorticity is the curl of the velocity field. In general, the evolution of vorticity can be broken into contributions...
and has no vorticity. The flow is inviscid, incompressible and has constant mass density ρ. The flow therefore remains without vorticity, or is said...
those latitudes. In the lowest level of the stratosphere, strong potentialvorticity gradients remain, and the majority of that air remains confined within...
allows solutions like gravity waves, while also conserving energy and potentialvorticity. However, there are also some disadvantages as far as geophysical...
Photovoltaics, a technology for converting sunlight into electricity Potentialvorticity, in fluid dynamics Presta valve, one of the two common tire valves...
is present, tropical cyclones tend to move towards regions where potentialvorticity is increasing most quickly. Climatologically, tropical cyclones are...
al. (2011) suggests that during Kuroshio intrusion into the SCS, potentialvorticity must be conserved across the Luzon Strait. This means that intrusion...
{\displaystyle h} is not constant. The conservation of the potentialvorticity forces the relative vorticity ζ {\displaystyle \zeta } or the Coriolis parameter...
of potentialvorticity, that transport is balanced by a narrow, intense poleward current, which flows along the western coast, allowing the vorticity introduced...
In fluid mechanics, topographic steering is the effect of potentialvorticity conservation on the motion of a fluid parcel. This means that the fluid...
polar front. This causes a sharp north-south pressure (south-north potentialvorticity) gradient in the horizontal plane, an effect which is most significant...
high vorticity regions are then “stretched”, and high pressure and low vorticity regions are “squashed”, yielding higher and lower vorticity, respectively...
extratropical cyclones and frontogenesis, particularly through the use of potentialvorticity. He has also produced research across many areas of meteorology,...
vorticity to produce vertical vorticity transports air containing vertical vorticity from mid-level to the surface enhances the near-ground vorticity...
conservation of potentialvorticity caused by the poleward-moving winds on the subtropical ridge's western periphery and the increased relative vorticity of northward...
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