Deformation (meteorology)

Deformation is the rate of change of shape of fluid bodies. Meteorologically, this quantity is very important in the formation of atmospheric fronts, in the explanation of cloud shapes, and in the diffusion of materials and properties.[1]

A cloud appears to set be place by a human hand

Equations

The deformation of horizontal wind is defined as , where and , representing the derivatives of wind component. Because these derivatives vary greatly with the rotation of the coordinate system, so do and .[1]

Stretching direction

The deformation elements and (above) can be used to find the direction of the dilatation axis, the line along which the material elements stretch (also known as the stretching direction). Several flow patterns are characteristic of large deformation: confluence, diffluence, and shear flow. Confluence, also known as stretching, is the elongating of a fluid body along the flow (streamline convergence). Diffluence, also known as shearing, is the elongating of a fluid body normal to the flow (streamline divergence).[1]

Extreme cloud confluence
gollark: Besides, Sputnik had bad quality control issues, they'd probably mess up the chips.
gollark: Why would we distribute microchips via vaccines? That would be very obvious. They self-assemble out of bits in food and larger airborne particulates.
gollark: Probably next week. You can help by eating more silicon and various exotic nonmetals.
gollark: Not really, the transmit power is lower than it should be. We had to offload its data onto your backup microchip.
gollark: Why? They can totally be made that via something something determinant.

See also

References

  1. Djurić, D: "Weather Analysis". Prentice Hall, 1994. ISBN 0-13-501149-3.
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