11. Atmospheric Forces

In this chapter you will be introduced to the forces governing atmospheric motions that will be important for describing important for synoptic scale motions with force balances. A common theme throughout all of meteorology is balance. The non-uniform heating from the sun across Earth’s surface creates an imbalance in temperature, which creates a localized difference in pressure. The atmosphere does not like the imbalance (in temperature or pressure or anything), so the reaction is to undo the temperature/pressure difference. This is where we get weather from, an attempt to regain balance in the atmosphere. Luckily, the atmosphere is never able to achieve the balance (because it is always being pulled out of balance) otherwise we wouldn’t have anything to forecast!