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What is the behavior of a rotating Earth's atmosphere indoors? Should there be any differences experienced between the atmosphere spinning in lockstep with the Earth outdoors vs. closed-off indoors?

I've asked this same question in Quora already but do not feel that the answers have been satisfactory (yet), so I'm somewhat escalating it to here. Thanks and hope it's not too remedial a question for this forum.

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  • $\begingroup$ The first (and non trivial!) task is to define the problem properly. For example, should we assume the earth is a sphere, or (more realistically) a perfect ellipsoid because of the interaction of rotation and gravity? What about thermal effects and seasonal variations - a real planet loses heat by radiation symmetrically in all directions, but gains it in a nonuniform way from solar radiation. It would be reasonable to assume the atmosphere is an ideal gas, but what about viscosity? That's not meant to be a complete list of undefined parameters - just thoughts off the top of my head. $\endgroup$
    – alephzero
    Commented Dec 22, 2018 at 1:02
  • $\begingroup$ Of course the "real-world" answer is trivial - just stick your head outside the door of the room ;) Even ignoring the local short term instabilities that form "weather", look at the global pattern of "trade winds" at the surface, and high-level winds like the jet stream. $\endgroup$
    – alephzero
    Commented Dec 22, 2018 at 1:06
  • $\begingroup$ thanks for the responses. we accept that the earth's rotation is a given, that it is ~1040 mph at the equator and reducing to near-zero at the poles with gradation in-between. we also accept that the atmosphere is rotating in 'lockstep' with the earth, at the same speed at the earth's surface and increasing predictably with altitude due to the nature of a ~sphere. given these...givens, then the atmosphere is perpetually moving at a high rate of speed in the same direction as the earth is rotating. yes, this raises some questions, but i am mostly concerned with any differentials (in or outside) $\endgroup$
    – O A
    Commented Dec 22, 2018 at 3:05
  • $\begingroup$ and yes, it is a good point to make sure all terms and variables are properly accounted for. for my part, i'm assuming a perfect sphere, but i think that the variations within the entire 'packet' of the atmosphere, that these variations would not cancel each other out and remove what i would expect to be a powerful differential right at the doorway of any building. since this is not what we see of course, i'm just trying to get the best explanation. $\endgroup$
    – O A
    Commented Dec 22, 2018 at 3:12
  • $\begingroup$ perhaps i should have just started by using an airplane as an example? laminar flow of the entire atmosphere (well...it can also be viewed as a turbulent flow system, not sure), 'boxed' when the fuselage as sealed/doors closed AND when the craft is at rest > plane takes off and makes any course change that is other than east/west inline with the rotating earth, then lands and...what is expected with the local atmospheric conditions inside vs what is occurring outside? all this to ask: what happens when you seal off a part of a flow? even if the chamber is moving within the overall flow? $\endgroup$
    – O A
    Commented Dec 25, 2018 at 23:03

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The atmosphere outdoors should be subject to a slightly differential rotation. Indoors, because of the boundary conditions and the Coriolis force, the atmosphere might be experiencing some very small internal motion, mostly rotation. I haven't thought about it much, so I'm not confident in my answer.

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  • $\begingroup$ thanks for the response. i can appreciate that differential rotation would present between surface level atmosphere and, say, right before the karman line, but not sure i'm quite catching the reference to differential rotation within a structure and outside. if we accept that the entire...packet of atmosphere is moving at the rate of earth's rotation, then i would expect boundary conditions to present at any doorway $\endgroup$
    – O A
    Commented Dec 22, 2018 at 3:13

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