Lecture 41 Geostrophic Wind

ATMOS 5000 Lecture 41: Geostrophic Wind

[andresmoramartinez]

I've learnt a lot with these videos. Thank you from Valencia!!

[DinoAoE]

Hello!

I'm trying to find someone who explains to me why that happens the way it does.

I like understanding the main reasons of everything, the logic, because things don't happen just because. In physics, it's not only that things happen the way they do, but that it would be impossible that it was any other way.

I see why in the Northern Hemisphere the Coriolis Force tends to bend a wind that it's blowing from South to North, towards the East. That happens because the momentum of the wind is higher the closer it is to the equator, since the radius is higher, so its absolute velocity is higher, then if it's moving further away from the equator towards an area of smaller radius and therefore lower speed, the wind has more speed than the land it is entering into so it "overtakes" that portion of land. I see why it is that way and how it would be impossible to be any different way.

BUT,

Why do we assume that the Coriolis Force always acts at 90º to the wind? What makes the Coriolis Force act like that? What is the logic? Why is it that way and not other? What is it that makes it impossible that the Coriolis Force just affects the components of the wind going North or South, but not the E-W components (which would fit the logic applied in the previous paragraph)? That is the part that I don't see. It's not that I don't believe it, I do. But it looks like an act of faith. I don't see it, I just have to believe it's true because that's what I've been told at class. Any logical intuituve explanation?

Thank you!

[ireneozarraga]

Nice explanation and i learned a lot. Thanks

[syedanas]

why is he directly looking me in the eye