Relative Vorticity

• produced by two effects:
  • curvature
  • shear

• The sum of a parcel's planetary vorticity and its relative vorticity is called absolute vorticity

• Short waves are identified in the upper-level flow as maxima of absolute vertical vorticity
• See if you can pick them out at 500 mb
• Practice picking them out in a model forecast of the 500 mb flow

QUESTION FOR THOUGHT:

Suppose that the earth stops rotating.  How would this affect the earth's vorticity?  What would happen to the absolute vorticity of a moving air parcel?  If the parcel were initially moving southwestward, how would its direction change, if at all?