If the exterior fluid did pass right up the centre then the circulation would remain constant, but it is possible that it gets mixed before reaching the cap and that the circulation generated by the smaller density at the cap is exactly cancelled by Reynolds stresses in the mixing region.
The vertical velocity in pressure co‐ordinates is computed from synoptic data on two occasions for each 100 mb interval between 1,000 mb and 200 mb at the points, approximately 160 mi apart, of a mesh covering much of the Atlantic Ocean and Europe. The assumptions made are that the mean lapse rate is everywhere the same, that there is little movement of air through the upper and lower pressure surfaces and that the horizontal wind is approximately geostrophic. The results show that the vertical profile is approximately parabolic with respect to pressure in regions of great development, but that elsewhere the profiles are not of a simple shape.
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