Abstract
A diagnostic procedure to compute the surface wind from the geostrophic wind including the effects of baroclinity is designed and tested. Expressions are derived to calculate the similarity functions A and B for use when only the surface geostrophic wind Vg0 and its vertical derivative ∂Vg/∂z are known (i.e., no atmospheric boundary-layer winds are available). The cross-isobaric angle of the surface wind has a maximum for δ=122° and a minimum for δ=300°, where δ is the angle counterclockwise from Vg0 to ∂Vg/∂z. The surface wind speed is highest for δ=30° and lowest for δ=210°. The results are compared to observations and the agreement is quite good.
