How the Upper Air Patterns Relate to Lower Levels

[Brian Press]

Hey All,

I have a question that I have been pondering for a while now and I just thought there is no better place to ask then here!

I understand that the atmosphere is fluid, like water.. I love looking at long duration (more then a month long) water vapor loops where you can see how everything ebbs and flows, complete with Eddy's and all. I grew up surfing here in So. Cal and I am very familiar with the waves and water flow and all that, but...

My question is, for example, when a trough comes through the plains, (Whether is Positive tilt, Neg Tilt or Neutral Tilt) how does it induce a surface low pressure? And how come come surfaces lows are stronger then others? In my mind I can can see the layers of the atmosphere, and it's like the upper level winds, push downward to create the surface lows, but the only way it makes sense to me is it is like Friction that makes the Surface lows spin? I just don't get it.

When looking at the models, I tend to look at the 300mb jet first to see if there is a trough coming in or not. Then, it's almost assumed that when I see the trough, I look at the 850mb winds, sur enough, they are Southwest, South, or South East. I also noticed when the troughs have more of a Negative Tilt, the winds tend to back more. So, back to my question, how does the upper air effect the surface air.

Thank so much!!!
Brian

 

[rdale]

You can wait for a few cobbled, quick, and not nearly complete forum posts - or grab an intro to meteorology textbook. I think the latter option will do you better

 

[Andy Jackson]

Here's a cool old video demonstrating vorticity (this is part 1/2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loCLkcYEWD4

Here's one on cyclogenesis:
Watch video >

There are some excellent meteorologists on this forum and they may be able to reference a good meteorology book.

 

[Kelton Halbert]

This is a great meteorology textbook. It has a lot of equations in it, but you can still get by without the calculus. It's pretty dense though! Still, it has helped me connect a lot of meteorological concepts to application.

https://secure.ametsoc.org/amsbookstore/viewProductInfo.cfm?productID=81

You should look into Potential Vorticity if you want to understand how the upper-atmosphere connects to the surface. I'm going to save myself the embarrassment of trying to explain it, but I'd recommend googling some information, or perhaps one of our meteorologist friends can talk about it. I don't fully understand it, as it's something I'm still learning. Hopefully this can point you into the right direction though!