Topological structures of the atmospheric flow fields
大气流场的拓扑结构

We study qualitively topological structures of some common flow fields in the atmosphere based on different simplifications and assumptions of fundamental equations. Results show that the streamlines of cyclones and anticyclones on the 2-D isobaric surface are similar to the manifold of a centric point (or elliptic point), The flow fields of typhoon and tornado are similar to the manifolds of saddle-focus points in 3-D space. When the atmospheric long wave evolves and blocking high appears, the manifold corresponds to the case while a saddle and a center point changes from coalescence to separation. The topological analyses of these flow fields are clearly intuitive and do help understand the patterns formation of atmospheric motion and the underlying mechanisms. Differences between the theoretical results and the real behavior of the atmospheric flow are due to the simplifications and assumptions we made, so our results have some Limitations.