Compressible fluid flows have long been a topic of study in the fluid dynamics

community. Whether in engineering or geophysical flows, there is probably some mass

density change in any physical flow. Many flow situations do exist, however, where such
changes can be neglected and the flow considered icncompressible. In naturally
occurring atmospheric and oceanographic flows, that is geophysical flows, mass density
changes are neglected in the mass conservation equation and the velocity field is taken
as solenoidal, but are accounted for in the momentum and energy balances. In
engineering flows, mass density changes are not neglected in the mass balance and, in
addition, are kept in the momentum and energy balances. Underlying the discussion of
the fluid dynamics of compressible flows is the need to invoke the concepts of
thermodynamics and exploit the relations between such quantities as mass density,
pressure, and temperature. Such relations, though strictly valid under mechanical and
thermal equilibrium conditions, have been found to apply equally well in moving fluids
apparently far from the equilibrium state