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Vorticity in the atmosphere is created in three different ways, which are named in their resultant vorticity. These are; Coriolis vorticity, curvature vorticity, and shear vorticity. For example, at the base of a trough, there is curvature and shear vorticity. Curvature vorticity is due to the increasing cyclonic turning as an air parcel enters ...
In the northern hemisphere, positive vorticity is called cyclonic rotation, and negative vorticity is anticyclonic rotation; the nomenclature is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. The absolute vorticity is computed from the air velocity relative to an inertial frame, and therefore includes a term due to the Earth's rotation, the Coriolis ...
These undulations give the hollows and peaks of altitude. In general, absolute vorticity advection is positive between these two features, but closer to the ridge, whereas it is negative just behind a trough. At the surface, lifting air under positive vorticity advection is reflected by the formation of depressions and troughs.
Shortwave trough with associated vorticity. A shortwave or shortwave trough is an embedded kink in the trough / ridge pattern. Its length scale is much smaller than that of and is embedded within longwaves, which are responsible for the largest scale (synoptic scale) weather systems.
Conceptually, the vorticity could be observed by placing a tiny rough ball at the point in question, free to move with the fluid, and observing how it rotates about its center. The direction of the vorticity vector is defined to be the direction of the axis of rotation of this imaginary ball (according to the right-hand rule ) while its length ...
In meteorology, [2] helicity corresponds to the transfer of vorticity from the environment to an air parcel in convective motion. Here the definition of helicity is simplified to only use the horizontal component of wind and vorticity, and to only integrate in the vertical direction, replacing the volume integral with a one-dimensional definite integral or line integral:
where is the relative vorticity, is the layer depth, and is the Coriolis parameter. The conserved quantity, in parentheses in equation (3), was later named the shallow water potential vorticity. For an atmosphere with multiple layers, with each layer having constant potential temperature, the above equation takes the form
The combination of vorticity advection and thermal advection created by the temperature gradient and a low pressure center cause upward motion around the low. [ a ] If the temperature gradient is strong enough, temperature advection will increase, driving more vertical motion.