Planetary Scale Baroclinity Part 2 [HD Video]

[CaptainObvious607]

Excellent explanation, really helped me a lot. Thanks for uploading man!

[pokerguy17]

My question is, if there was only one air mass and no cells of any kind, wouldn't that create barotropic conditions, instead of baroclinic conditions? Think about it, uniform temperature and pressure, so no gradients of any kind; isn't that what constitutes as barotropic?

[FutureMeteorologist]

Yes you are correct, there would only a barotropic air mass if the earth was flat (no coriolis force and no temerature variaton between latitudes). However localized thunderstorms would still form, and the area between the updraft and the downdraft is a mesoscale baroclinic zone.

[pokerguy17]

FutureMeteorologist,

Ok, so with a barotopic air mass how would thunderstorms form and how would a mesoscale baroclinic zone manifest itself because of this?

[pokerguy17]

At the end of your presentation, you were talking about what would happen without the existence of pressure and temperature gradients. You said that the absence of planetary scale pressure and temperature gradients would cause hadley, ferrell, polar cells, and mid-latitude cyclones not to exist, since there would be only one air mass. You then went on to say there would only be mesoscale baroclinity that would exist.

[nicegirlatmiami]

this is Good to know

[FutureMeteorologist]

Thanks =]