A disturbance of geostrophic equilibrium in the form of an unbalanced vortex of finite lateral extension or an unbalanced zonal current of finite width is suddenly injected into upper atmospheric layers between 8 and 16 km at time t = 0. We consider the changes of motion, temperature and pressure caused by the initially unbalanced velocity field which seeks to gain a stationary geostrophic equilibrium, and compare the final to the initial state. To this end the linearized hydro-thermodynamical equations are solved on the assumption that the basic state of the horizontally unlimited atmosphere is in rest and the lapse rate of temperature vanishes or, in a second example, is adiabatic. We show that the solutions for these baroclinic disturbances are obtained by a superposition of solutions for barotropic disturbances
