Secondary circulation

Short description: Circulation induced in a rotating system

In fluid dynamics, a secondary circulation or secondary flow is a weak circulation that plays a key maintenance role in sustaining a stronger primary circulation that contains most of the kinetic energy and momentum of a flow.[1] For example, a tropical cyclone's primary winds are tangential (horizontally swirling), but its evolution and maintenance against friction involves an in-up-out secondary circulation flow that is also important to its clouds and rain. On a planetary scale, Earth's winds are mostly east–west or zonal, but that flow is maintained against friction by the Coriolis force acting on a small north–south or meridional secondary circulation.

## See also

* Hough function
* Primitive equations
* Secondary flow

## References

1. ↑ Holton, James R. (2019). An introduction to dynamic meteorology.. Elsevier Science. ISBN 9780128093290. OCLC 1124306270. http://worldcat.org/oclc/1124306270.

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary circulation. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Physics:Secondary_circulation&oldid=667588"