XII. 



ON THE PHENOMENA OF MOTION IN THE ATMOSPHERE.* 

 (FIRST COMMUNICATION.) 



By Prof. A. Oberbeck, of the University of Greifawald, Germany. 



The meteorological observations of the last ten years have given a 

 series of notable laws that principally relate to the connection between 

 the currents of air and the pressure of the air in the neighborhood of 

 the earth's surface. 



Of course one can only hope to obtain a complete insight into the 

 complicated mechanism of the motion of the air when one understands 

 more accurately the condition of the atmosphere in its higher strata. 

 But difficulties that are perhaps never to be overcome oppose the 

 observation of these strata. On the other hand, the completion of this 

 and many other gaps in the theory of the motion of the air is certainly 

 to be expected from a comprehensive mechanics of the atmosphere. 

 The Treatise on Meteorology, by A. Sprung, Hamburg, 1885, gives a 

 summary of what has hitherto been accomplished in this field, from 

 which summary it is seeu that only special individual problems have 

 found a satisfactory solution. 



The principal features of a rational mechanics of the atmosphere 

 are given in the memoir by W. Siemens, "The conservation of energy 

 in the earth's atmosphere." t It appears to me worth while to follow 

 out mathematically the questions there treated of and to develop a the- 

 ory of the motions of the air as general as possible. The results thus 

 far attained by me, are collected in this present memoir. 



On account of the magnitude and difficulty of the problem to be 

 solved, I have at first confined myself to the determination of the cur- 

 rents of the air. A corresponding investigation of the distribution of 

 pressure will follow hereafter. Moreover the phenomena of motion 



* Read before the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, at Berlin. March 15, 1888. 

 Translated from the Sitzungsberichte Konigl. Preus. Akad. der Wissenschaften. 1888, 

 pp. 383-395. 



t See Berlin Sitzungsoerichte, 1886, pp. 261-275. 

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