 Closed-streamline threshold for a circular topographic anticyclone

For the circular topographic anticyclone in a positive uniform current $U$, the opposing disturbance speed is at most $Ca=fϵa/2$. Below the displayed threshold $u$ remains positive everywhere, so no streamline can close. Above it an interior stagnation point at $(0,-U/C)$ is a center, while the exterior point $(0,-C{a}^2/U)$ is a saddle. At equality the two meet at the rim. This is the onset criterion; once closed contours form, the potential vorticity of trapped fluid is not determined solely by its present upstream conditions.