A surface weather chart over the North Atlantic at latitude shows isobars spaced…

PHYSICS · Subjective · Fermi University Physics · Fluids & Continuum Physics · Convection, rotation and geophysical flows · Convection, rotation and geophysical flows

Fluid Dynamics, Ch Rotating fluids: geostrophy, Taylor columns and Ekman layers

Problem

A surface weather chart over the North Atlantic at latitude

60^\circ\mathrm{N}

shows isobars spaced

2\,\mathrm{hPa}

apart and

150\,\mathrm{km}

apart, with no other information about curvature or friction. Take the air density as

1.2\,\mathrm{kg\,m^{-3}}

. Assuming geostrophic balance, find the wind speed along the isobars.

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