Premium
On the accuracy of the semi‐geostrophic approximation
Author(s) -
Cullen M. J. P.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49712656413
Subject(s) - geostrophic wind , computation , rossby radius of deformation , rossby number , radius , meteorology , horizontal and vertical , geology , mathematics , geodesy , rossby wave , physics , climatology , computer science , turbulence , algorithm , computer security
The semi‐geostrophic model has been widely used to understand atmospheric flows such as fronts and developing cyclones. However, there have been a number of demonstrations of its lack of accuracy. This paper presents theory and computations to demonstrate that the semi‐geostrophic model is an accurate approximation to the primitive equations either on horizontal scales larger than the Rossby radius of deformation or when the ratio of horizontal to vertical scales is greater than f/N .