Potential vorticity

The potential vorticity or potential vorticity is a measure of the shear of currents in particular in oceanography and meteorology of importance. It combines the conservation of vorticity ( vorticity ) with the conservation of mass and is a special case of ertel between vertebrate record.

Vorticity potential is defined as:

With

• The relative vorticity
• The planetary vorticity   angular velocity

As a measure of the potential vorticity PVU (potential vorticity unit) is commonly used in meteorology:

Source or sink of potential vorticity are baroclinic effects and friction.

If the following restrictions apply for the flow:

Then the potential vorticity is conserved:

It follows that the relative vorticity must decrease when the planetary vorticity increases, for example when moving a column of water to the north. This is analogous to the angular momentum of the mechanism.

When a function of density and pressure, that is,, This is equivalent to adiabaticity. Then, the potential vorticity obtained can also be represented as:

With

• The latitude
• The water depth.