Meteorology and Oceanography on a Flat Earth

TL;DR

This paper explores atmospheric and oceanic dynamics on a flat Earth model to highlight differences with spherical planets, providing educational insights and debunking flat Earth misconceptions.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative analysis of fluid dynamics on flat versus spherical Earth models, emphasizing educational value and misconceptions.

Findings

Weather and ocean flows differ drastically between flat and spherical Earth models.

The study provides educational tools to correct flat Earth misconceptions.

Differences highlight the importance of planetary geometry in geophysical fluid dynamics.

Abstract

To build insight into the atmosphere and ocean, it is useful to apply qualitative reasoning to predict the geophysical fluid dynamicss of worlds radically different from our own such as exoplanets, earth in Nuclear Winter, other solar system worlds, and far future terrestial climates. Here, we look at atmospheric and oceanic dynamics on a flat earth, that is a disc-shaped planet rather like Sir Terry Pratchet's fantasy Discworld. Altough this has the disadvantage that this geometry is a completely imaginary, there is a rich larray of videos by flat earth proponents whose errors illuminate how concepts can be misconceived and misapplied by amateurs and freshman science studients. As such, this case is very useful to geophysics instructors. We show that weather and ocean flows on a flat, nonrotating earth and a rotating spherical planet are wildly different. These differences are a crushing debunk of the flat earh heresy, if one were needed. The "high contrast" of these very different atmospheres and oceans is valuable in instilling the open-mindedness that is essential in understanding excoplanets and Nuclear Winter and Post-Climate-Apocalypse earth.