= Weak temperature gradient approximation
{title2=WTG}
{wiki}
In the tropical free troposphere, small <Coriolis parameter> and rapid <internal gravity wave> adjustment keep horizontal <temperature gradients> weak. An idealized model therefore suppresses horizontal temperature perturbations at leading order and balances diabatic heating by vertical <advection> of the reference stratification. This is not a claim that surface temperature or moisture is spatially uniform, nor is it ordinary midlatitude <geostrophic balance>.
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