Dynamic Meteorology/ Atmospheric Dynamics-I

Lecture 3: Fundamental Forces in the

Atmosphere-2:

Gravitational force
Viscous force

03-03-2021
Gravitational force
Newton’s law of universal gravitation states that any two
elements of mass in the universe attract each other with a force
proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance separating them.

G – gravitational constant (= 6.673x10-11 N m2 kg-2)

M – mass of Earth (=5.988x1024 kg)
m – mass of air parcel
r – distance between objects
The gravitational force exerted on a unit mass of the atmosphere is:

The distance r is given by:

r = a + z, where
a = mean radius of the earth (= 6.37x106 m)
z = distance above sea level

The gravitational force per unit mass of atmosphere at sea level is:
At height z, g * is given by

For meteorological applications z « a

i.e., the radius of the earth (6.37 x 106 m) >> any height above
mean sea level (MSL) with significant atmospheric motion.

Therefore we can treat the gravitational force as a constant.

 Viscous/ Frictional Force
What is the frictional force and how is it defined?

What processes represent the frictional force in the

atmosphere and how are they mathematically represented?

Friction, in general, is the force resisting the relative motion

of solid surfaces, fluid layers, solid surface and fluid layers,
and material elements sliding against each other.

Viscosity:The internal resistance to flow is called viscosity. The

less viscous the fluid, the greater its ease of deformation or
movement. Almost all fluids offer some resistance to shearing
and therefore are viscous.
Fluid friction describes the resistance between layers of
a viscous fluid that are moving relative to each other.

The viscosity of air is responsible for resisting motion of

the atmospheric layers. It is a dissipative force, which
results in slowing a fluid (if no other forces supporting the
motion are acting).
Characteristics of friction
 In the atmosphere, friction occurs:
i) between the atmospheric layers that are moving relative
to each other, and
ii) between the surface and the atmospheric layer in contact
with it.
 Since air is not very viscous , the friction is more important in
a thin layer of the atmosphere next to the surface.

 However, air is very turbulent in the lower part of the

troposphere (known as the Atmospheric Boundary Layer, ABL).
This turbulence generates up and down motion, which mixes slow
air from the friction layer with fast air from above, thereby
spreading the effect of molecular friction over a layer of few
hundred meters thick. This interaction with the surface slows
down atmospheric motion in the ABL.
height

height
1000 m
800 m
600 m
400 m
200 m

wind speed wind speed

 Friction doesn’t just slow the wind down, it breaks up the flow
of the wind, making it blow in different directions at different
speeds. This creates turbulence.
• Friction exists only if air is in motion. Friction force is
maximum at earth’s surface, which decreases with height. Near
the surface, objects as small as blades of grass or waves in the
ocean, or as large as trees or buildings, slow down the air.

• The frictional drag is felt as high as 1-2 km up in the atmosphere

(in the planetary boundary layer) during the daytime, as turbulence
extends upward from the ground. In this layer, the magnitude of
frictional force is comparable to other terms in the equations of
motion and it must be included in the equations.

• Frictional force in the rest of troposphere and upper part of the

atmosphere are usually very weak and can be neglected.
 Mathematical representation

Consider the fluid confined between two plates:

The upper plate is moving at a speed u0 in the x direction and the

lower plate is stationary.

The fluid in contact with the plates moves at the speed of the plate,
because the solid surface is exerting a shear stress on the fluid.
The tangential force required to keep the upper plate moving can
be expressed as

µ= dynamic viscosity coefficient (a constant of

proportionality)
A = area of the plate
u0 = speed of upper plate
l = distance/ separation between the plates

 In steady state, the force exerted on the plate is exactly equal

and opposite to the force that the plate exerts on the fluid in
contact with the plate.

 Each layer of fluid exerts force on the layer of fluid below/

above.
The viscous force acting on the uppermost fluid layer can also be
expressed as:

where

δz is the layer of fluid being considered.

The shearing stress is defined as the viscous force per unit area as

The subscript zx indicates that the

shearing stress in the x direction
due to the vertical (z) shear of the x
velocity component (u) of the flow.
 The moving molecules in the fluid layer at the top exert a shear
stress on the layer of fluid below them, causing them to move also,
but this layer is also being acted upon by the layer below that,
exerting a retarding stress, and so on, down through the layers,
creating a linear profile of fluid flow.

 In the above discussion, although there is motion, there is no

acceleration, indicating that no net viscous force is acting.

 Thus, just as in the case of pressure, the mere presence of

shear stress (internal friction) in a fluid does not cause a net force.

 For net force to occur, there must be a gradient in the shear

stress.
Consider a general case where τzx varies in the vertical:

The shear stress acting below the top boundary (on the fluid below, but
inside the volume) is:

The shear stress acting above the bottom boundary (on the fluid above, but
inside the volume) is:
The viscous force at each boundary is equal to the shear stress
multiplied by the surface area of the boundary δ xδ y

Then the net viscous force acting on this volume in the x-direction is:

The viscous force per unit mass is:

where
Assuming that µ is constant gives:

where

is the kinematic viscosity coefficient (=1.46 x 10-5 m2 s-1

for standard atmospheric conditions at sea level).
 The total viscous force due to shear stresses in all three directions
for all three components of the flow, and commonly referred to as
the frictional force, is given by:

Since ν is small, this force is

negligible in the atmosphere, except
where the vertical shear is large.

For the atmosphere below 100 km, ν is so small that molecular

viscosity is negligible except in a thin layer within a few
centimeters of the earth’s surface ,where the vertical shear is very
large.
Away from this surface molecular boundary layer, momentum
is transferred primarily by turbulent eddy motions.