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Pressure difference between two points on the Earth's surface

Physics Asked on July 28, 2021

I’d like to find the pressure difference between two points $X$ and $Y$ on the Earth’s surface given that wind blows steadily with speed $U$ from (say) West to East. Here’s a picture: ($z_i$ is the height above sea-level in metres)

enter image description here

I have seen

  • The Bernoulli equation for potential flow:

$rho frac{ partial phi}{partial t} + frac{1}{2} rho vec{u}^2 + p + rho g z = f(t)$

and

  • the Euler equation for a rotating fluid:

$frac{Dvec{u}}{Dt} + 2 rho vec{Omega} times vec{u} = -nabla p + rho vec{g}$

Attempt 1:

If I neglect the rotation of the Earth and use Bernoulli, then I get

$p_X + rho g z_1 = p_Y + rho g z_2$,

since

  • if the flow is steady the potential function $phi$ is independent of $t$, so $partial phi/partial t=0$
  • the $frac{1}{2} rho vec{u}^2$ terms cancel.

This gives a pressure difference of $rho g(z_1-z_2)$ (where $rho$ is the air density).

This solution doesn’t seem right as I haven’t used the extra information about the wind speed.

Attempt 2:

If we further assume that the air is incompressible ($nabla U = 0$) then $Du/Dt = 0$.

If I can write $vec{Omega} times vec{u}$ in terms of known quantities, then I can compute $nabla p$ from the Euler equation and I’m essentially done.

However, I’m not sure how to handle the $vec{Omega} times vec{u}$ term.

Any ideas? I think I’m overcomplicating this.

One Answer

Attempt 1 is right. If you want to see a contribution from the Coriolis term, you should make the wind blow into or out of the page rather than along the direction from X to Y.

Answered by Ben51 on July 28, 2021

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