SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY METEOROLOGY 403

DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES Fall 2004

Importance of Solenoid Term¹ in Generating

Absolute Circulation in Various Situations

Feature or Phenomenon	Importance of Term	Reason
MACRO AND SYNOPTIC SCALE
General circulation	Minimal	Barotropic
Synoptic Scale	Minimal	Equiv Baro
Occlusions	Minimal	Equiv Baro
Warm/cold core highs/lows	Minimal	Equiv Baro
MESOSCALE AND SMALLER SCALES
Jet Streaks	Very	Baroclinic
Active frontal "zones"	Very	Baroclinic
Ouflow boundaries	Very	Baroclinic
Mountain/Valley Breezes	Very	Baroclinic
Sea/Land Breeze	Very	Baroclinic

¹Remember, in order for the solenoid term to return a value for acceleration of circulation, there must be significant density (temperature) advection. The fact that a strong gradient of temperature exists in and of itself does not imply the development of a solenoidal circulation.