Steven M. Cavallo

 

Visualization of tropopause maps




Dynamical tropopause/Hoskins 1990

The "Dynamic tropopause". The black lines represent lines of constant Ertel potential vorticity while the red lines represent lines of constant potential temperature (theta). The "Dynamic tropopause" is represented by the bold black line, and in this diagram is the 2 PVU surface. 1 PVU is 1 x 10^{-6} K kg^{-1} s^{-1} m^2. Values on the ordinate are pressure with units of millibars and on the absicsa is degrees latitude (Hoskins 1990*).


*Hoskins, B.J., 1990: Theory of extratropical cyclones. Chapter 5 of Extratropical Cyclones: The Erik Palmen Memorial Volume, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 63-80.



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