Frictional Effects in Strongly Divergent Flows

Abstract

The effect of friction in strongly divergent steady flows is studied. It is found that friction weakens flow divergence out of strong high-pressure centers, contrary to the more commonly studied case for weaker high-pressure centers in rotating flows, for which friction produces divergence. The stability of the solution is discussed for the general case on a linear basis. Nonlinear analytic solutions are presented for the case of no deformation in the flow. The conclusions are quantified in a drag, deformation and Laplacian of geopotential parameter space.