geopotential
nounEtymology From geo- + potential.
1
Climatology, Meteorology, Natural sciences The work that must be done at a given altitude in raising a unit mass from sea level to that altitude against the earth's gravitational field.
- It might sound puzzling that the ageostrophic geopotential (or the ageostrophic pressure in z-coordinate) has no impact on the evolution of the vorticity of a quasi-geostrophic disturbance and yet it affects the perturbation kinetic energetics (not globally but locally).2004, Zhu Xun, Li Xiaofan, Cai Ming, Observation, Theory And Modeling Of Atmospheric Variability, →ISBN, page 13:
- Derived terms
- geopotential height
- Related terms
- geostrophic wind, geostrophic wind level, gradient wind