In atmospheric science, balanced flow is an idealisation of atmospheric motion. The idealisation consists in considering the behaviour of one isolated parcel of air having constant density, its motion on a horizontal plane subject to selected forces acting on it and, finally, steady-state conditions.
Balanced flow is often an accurate approximation of the actual flow, and is useful in improving the qualitative understanding and interpretation of atmospheric motion. In particular, the balanced-flow speeds can be used as estimates of the wind speed for particular arrangements of the atmospheric pressure on Earth’s surface.
Read more about Balanced Flow: Antitriptic Flow, Geostrophic Flow, Cyclostrophic Flow, Inertial Flow, Gradient Flow, Balanced-flow Speeds Compared
Other articles related to "balanced flow, balanced, flows, flow":
... Each balanced-flow idealisation gives a different estimate for the wind speed in the same conditions ... Firstly, imagine that a sample parcel of air flows 500 meters above the sea surface, so that frictional effects are already negligible ... Secondly, let the pressure force driving the flow be measured by a rate of change taken as 1hPa/100 km (an average value) ...
... predicted by considerations of gradient flow, and the direction of the wind is indeed parallel to the isobars in the region ... This flow of air across the isobars near ground level is a secondary flow ... It does not conform to the primary flow, which is parallel to the isobars ...
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