Re: Hot air rising and automobile thermometers

[Robert A Cohen <bbq@ESU.EDU>]

On Fri, 23 Jul 1999, brian whatcott wrote:

> We could visualise an ordinary wind as flowing nearly parallel to
> lines of equal atmospheric pressure ('isobars') across a plane surface
> and motivated by the pressure gradient between them.

[snip]

> As to the reason for naming the temperature-driven winds (as opposed
>  to the pressure-driven common wind) I suppose one should consult
> Xenophon's description of the uphill march of Cyrus' son into Asia.
> It was the prototype anabasis. Katabasis was the Greek word
> for going down.

At the risk of sounding pedantic (perhaps I've caught the bug), what is
the difference between an "ordinary wind", a "common wind", a
"temperature-driven wind" and a "pressure-driven" wind?  I thought all
winds were pressure driven.  Am I to assume that the sea-breeze is a
temperature-driven wind whereas the jet stream is made up of
pressure-driven winds?  Is it just the scale of the pressure field that
distinguishes the two?

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| Robert Cohen               Department of Physics       |
|                            East Stroudsburg University |
| bbq@esu.edu                East Stroudsburg, PA  18301 |
| http://www.esu.edu/~bbq/   (570) 422-3428              |
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