In the context of

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

, a solenoid is a tube-shaped region in the atmosphere where

isobaric Isobar may refer to: * Isobar (meteorology), a line connecting points of equal atmospheric pressure reduced to sea level on the maps. * Isobaric process, a process taking place at constant pressure * Isobar (nuclide), one of multiple nuclides with ...

(constant pressure) and

isopycnal Isopycnals are layers within the ocean that are stratified based on their densities and can be shown as a line connecting points of a specific density or potential density on a graph. Isopycnals are often displayed graphically to help visualize ...

(constant density) surfaces intersect, causing vertical circulation. They are so-named because they are driven by the solenoid term of the

vorticity equation The vorticity equation of fluid dynamics describes the evolution of the vorticity of a particle of a fluid dynamics, fluid as it moves with its flow (fluid), flow; that is, the local rotation of the fluid (in terms of vector calculus this is the ...

. Examples of solenoids include the

sea breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is a wind that blows in the afternoon from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is a wind that blows in the night from a landmass toward or onto a large ...

circulation and the mountain–plains solenoid.

References

Atmospheric dynamics {{weather-stub