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- Can desalination quench agriculture’s thirst?
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Climate Science Glossary
Return to glossary listGeostrophic winds or currents
A wind or current that is in balance with the horizontal pressure gradient and the Coriolis force, and thus is outside of the influence of friction. Thus, the wind or current is directly parallel to isobars and its speed is inversely proportional to the spacing of the isobaric contours.
Definition courtesy of IPCC AR4.
All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.
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