11. A "'barotropic flow "'is a generalization of a barotropic atmosphere. 12. Examples include barotropic layers of the oceans, an isothermal ideal gas or an isentropic ideal gas. 13. Water, which varies only a few percent with temperature and salinity, may be approximated as barotropic . 14. In astrophysics, barotropic fluids are important in the study of stellar interiors or of the interstellar medium. 15. For this reason, this model may also be called barotropic ( density depends only on pressure ). 16. For the isothermal-barotropic model, density and pressure turn out to be exponential functions of altitude. 17. The terms " barotropic " and " baroclinic ", are used to distinguish the vertical structure of Rossby waves. 18. The tropics are more nearly barotropic than mid-latitudes because temperature is more nearly horizontally uniform in the tropics. 19. The barotropic fluid is a useful model of fluid behavior in a wide variety of scientific fields, from meteorology to astrophysics. 20. Thus, in a " barotropic " fluid ( which is defined by zero baroclinity ), these surfaces are parallel.
