Relative Vorticity

  • produced by two effects:
    • curvature
    • shear
  • The sum of a parcel's planetary vorticity and its relative vorticity is called absolute vorticity

QUESTION FOR THOUGHT:

Suppose that the earth stops rotating.  How would this affect the earth's vorticity?  What would happen to the absolute vorticity of a moving air parcel?  If the parcel were initially moving southwestward, how would its direction change, if at all?