The basic equations - Severe Convective Storms and Tornadoes: Observations and Dynamics - page 88

The perturbation wind field responds as divergence/convergence supporting the
vertical motions induced by buoyancy.
When rotation is included in (2.286) and (2.287) and a steady (rather than
sudden) heat source is applied, buoyancy and wind field perturbations decay as the
Rossby radius of deformation, as is usually demonstrated in synoptic meteorology
courses.
2.11 SIMILARITY OF FLUID DYNAMICS EQUATIONS TO
ELECTROMAGNETIC EQUATIONS
Since the equations that describe the dynamics of electric and magnetic fields
involve the curl and divergence of both fields, it has been suggested that fluid
dynamical equations, which involve the curl and divergence of the wind field as
well as their relation to other quantities, are similar in some sense to the equations
given by the theory of electric and magnetic fields. Owing to this similarity,
Haralambos Marmanis at Brown University has proposed that some insight into
the nonlinear behavior of fluids may be realized by carrying over results from
electromagnetic theory to fluids.
For example, since the time rate of change of the magnetic field is related to
the curl of the electric field (from Maxwell's equations) and the three-dimensional
vorticity vector is related to the curl of the wind field, insights from magnetic
induction may be carried over to the ''induction'' of the vorticity field by the wind
field: the vorticity vector is analogous to the time rate of change of the magnetic
field. Since the divergence of the magnetic field is zero and the divergence of the
curl of the wind field (vorticity) is zero, the magnetic field is analogous to
vorticity. Greg Tripoli at the University of Wisconsin Madison and Marcus Bu¨ ker
at Western Illinois University have proposed that studies be undertaken to explain
the behavior of vorticity in some convective storms using this electromagnetic
analogy. Studies in what is named ''metafluid dynamics'', at the time of this
writing, are in their infancy and it remains to be seen if this new arena of study
will bear fruit in our understanding of convective storm dynamics.
2.12 GENERAL MONOGRAPHS AND TOPICS
The reader is referred to p. 24 for a list of relevant general monographs and
topics.
2.13 REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abdullah, A. J. (1966) The ''musical'' sound emitted by a tornado. Mon. Wea. Rev., 94, 213-
220.