An overlooked aspect of the baroclinic stability problem

Abstract

The behavior of small disturbances of a stratified heavy fluid in nonuniform rotation is well known to be a complex subject, even if additional physical complications such as compressibility, non-plane boundaries, and irreversible effects are ignored. But because of its relevance to atmospheric motions, the subject has been studied extensively and a considerable literature exists. All such studies known to the writer have however involved assumptions beyond those of the type mentioned above.