thermal wind equation

thermal wind equation

[′thər·məl ¦wind i‚kwā·zhən] (meteorology) An equation for the vertical variation of the geostrophic wind in hydrostatic equilibrium which may be written -(∂V/∂ p) = (R / pf)k× ∇p T, whereVis the vector geostrophic wind, p the pressure (used here as the vertical coordinate), R the gas constant for air, f the Coriolis parameter,ka vertically directed unit vector, and ∇p the isobaric del operator.