Potential-vorticity conservation ($Dq/Dt=0$)

In unforced adiabatic inviscid motion, potential vorticity is conserved following a parcel:The linearization about a basic state is $({\partial }_t+\bar{\mathbf{u}}\cdot \nabla )q^{\prime }+{\mathbf{u}}^{\prime }\cdot \nabla \bar{q}=0$. This separates advection of a disturbance from its generation by displacement across a basic potential-vorticity gradient.