Talk:Barotropic fluid

Looks like we have an error here -

"The isobaric surfaces will also be isothermal surfaces, hence (from the thermal wind equation) the geostrophic wind is independent of height. Hence the motions of a rotating barotropic air mass or fluid are strongly constrained."

A flow independent of height doesn't necessarily have to be rotationally constrained, although a rotationally constrained flow (c.f. Taylor-Proudman) is independent of height under certain conditions. I would suggest a change like the following.

"The motions of a rotating barotropic air mass or fluid are strongly constrained as explained by the Taylor-Proudman theorem. Since density depends only on pressure the isobaric surfaces will also be isothermal surfaces and (from the thermal wind equation) the geostrophic wind is independent of height."

--Antoniomrubio (talk) 19:08, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Image suggestion

The vertical variation of geostrophic wind in a barotropic atmosphere (a) and in a baroclinic atmosphere (b). The blue portion of the surface denotes a cold region while the orange portion denotes a warm region.

Is this file useful? An image which contrasted baroclinic and barotropic might be helpful. HLHJ (talk) 09:32, 7 July 2015 (UTC)