130 TABU£ 41 



CORIOLIS PARAMETER AND LATITUDINAL VARIATION 



2u sin <j> = coriolis parameter. 



<t> = latitude. 



co = angular velocity of the earth = 7.292116 X 10" 5 rad. sec." 1 



R = radius of the earth = 6.371229 X 10* m. (mean radius of the Inter- 

 national ellipsoid). 



P= (2wcos 4>)/R = rate at which the coriolis parameter increases north- 

 ward.* 



Note. — 2w cos = 2w sin (90—0). 



* Rossby, C.-G., Journ. Mar. Res., vol. 2, pp. 38-55, 1939. 



Table 42 



INERTIAL MOTION 



The radius of curvature of the path of a particle moving horizontally with a velocity u 

 and acted upon only by the apparent forces due to the rotation of the earth is u/2w sin 4>. 

 As u — > the inertia circle approaches a point and the limiting period T required for the 

 particle to rotate about this inertia circle centered at latitude is one-half the length of 

 the pendulum day, i.e., T = sidereal day/2 sin <f> = 23.93447/2 sin <P hours. 



Radius of curvature 



45 16.92 48.5 97.0 145 194 242 291 339 388 485 582 679 776 873 970 



50 15.62 44.8 89.5 134 179 224 269 313 358 448 537 627 716 806 895 



55 14.61 41.9 83.7 126 167 209 251 293 335 419 502 586 670 753 837 



60 13.82 39.6 79.2 119 158 198 238 277 317 396 475 554 633 713 792 



65 13.20 37.8 75.7 113 151 189 227 265 303 378 454 530 605 681 757 



70 12.74 36.5 73.0 109 146 182 219 255 292 365 438 511 584 657 730 



75 12.39 35.5 71.0 106 142 177 213 248 284 355 426 497 568 639 710 



80 12.15 34.8 69.6 104 139 174 209 244 278 348 418 487 557 627 696 



85 12.01 34.4 68.8 103 138 172 206 241 275 344 413 482 551 619 688 



90 11.97 34.3 68.6 103 137 171 206 240 274 343 411 480 549 617 686 



SMITHSONIAN METEOROLOGICAL TABLES 



