Charney's problem for baroclinic instability applied to barotropic instability

Abstract

If barotropically unstable easterly jets may be approximated by broken line profiles, it becomes possible to use the solutions of the Charney (1947) problem for baroclinic instabilithy in order to solve the barotropic problem. Results are presented for easterly jets having an arbitrary degree of symmetry, and it is noted that the convenient calculation obtained for the growth of both localized and normal mode perturbations is important in the study of monsoon depressions over India.