Center for Research in Water Resources
University of Texas at Austin
CE 319F Elementary Fluid Mechanics Tutorial
Atmospheric Moisture Flow Over North America
Prepared by
David R. Maidment
Jerome Patoux
Christine Cotton
The image below shows the atmospheric moisture for June 1991. The arrows represent the magnitude of moisture flux and are pointed in the direction of the wind. The moisture flux is the product of specific humidity and the wind velocity. The specific humidity is the amount of water contained in each air column.
The quicktime movie shows the atmospheric moisture from June 1991 to July 1993. It is interesting to observe the motion of the circulating air above the ocean and the continent: the winds (Easterlies) take up water from the ocean (high humidity areas) at low latitudes. They blow toward the continent and penetrate above Central America and the central part of the United States.
To play the movie:
- Macintosh: Simple player or some other Quicktime compatible viewer must be installed.
- DOS/Windows/Windows NT: Mplayer or some other Avi compatible viewer must be installed.
- Unix with X-windows: a program called XAnim
will play a Quicktime movie.
- Note: The movie was created using Adobe Premiere in Quicktime format. The movie was converted to an Avi format for DOS/Windows using the vfw program.
Quicktime Movie: Atmospheric Moisture Flow over North America (1.5M)
DOS/Windows/Windows NT: Atmospheric Moisture Flow over North America (4.0M)