applet-magic.com Thayer Watkins
Silicon Valley & Tornado Alley USA
The Geostrophic Wind
The geostrophic wind vector Vg is given below
in various forms, where ρ is density, k is the unit vector in the
vertical direction, f is the Coriolis parameter and Φ is the
geopotential height.
Vg = k×((1/ρf)∇p
in Euclidian coordinates
Vg = (1/f)∇pΦ
in isobaric coordinates
Vg = -(1/f)∂Φ/∂n
in natural coordinates, where n denotes a normal to stream flow.