brunt_vaisala_frequency

metpy.calc.brunt_vaisala_frequency(heights, potential_temperature, axis=0)[source]

Calculate the Brunt-Vaisala frequency.

This function will calculate the Brunt-Vaisala frequency as follows:

\[N = \left( \frac{g}{\theta} \frac{d\theta}{dz} \right)^\frac{1}{2}\]

This formula based off of Equations 3.75 and 3.77 in [Hobbs2006].

This function is a wrapper for brunt_vaisala_frequency_squared that filters out negative (unstable) quanties and takes the square root.

Parameters

  • heights (pint.Quantity) – One-dimensional profile of atmospheric height

  • potential_temperature (pint.Quantity) – Atmospheric potential temperature

  • axis (int, optional) – The axis corresponding to vertical in the potential temperature array, defaults to 0.

Returns

pint.Quantity – Brunt-Vaisala frequency.

See also

brunt_vaisala_frequency_squared(), brunt_vaisala_period(), potential_temperature()