Description: |
High- and low-pressure systems, commonly referred to as synoptic systems, are the most energetic fluctuations of wind and temperature in the midlatitude troposphere. Synoptic systems are a few thousand kilometers in scale and are governed by a balance between the pressure gradient force and the Coriolis force. Observations collected near the tropopause by commercial aircraft indicate a change in dynamics at horizontal scales smaller than about 500 km. Smaller-scale fluctuations are shown to be dominated by inertia-gravity waves, waves that propagate on vertical density gradients but are influenced by Earth's rotation. [Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]
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