Stationary flow near fronts

In 1906, the Austrian scientist Max Margules published a paper on temperature stratification in resting and non-accelerated moving air. The paper derives conditions for stationary slopes of air mass boundaries and was an important forerunner of frontal theories. Its formulation of relations between changes in density and geostrophic wind across the front is basically a discrete version of the thermal wind balance equation. The paper was highly influential and is still being cited to the present day. This paper accompanies an English translation of Margules’ seminal paper. We conclude here our “Classic Papers” series of the Meteorologische Zeitschrift.