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× ∇_pT, whereVis the vector geostrophic wind,pthe pressure (used here as the vertical coordinate),Rthe gas constant for air,fthe Coriolis parameter,ka vertically directed unit vector, and ∇_pthe isobaric del operator.