The existence of winds from cataclysmic variables (CVs) has been known for some time, there are a variety of unresolved questions surrounding this phenomenon. These include: the origin of the apparent polar nature of the winds; the rate of mass loss in the winds and the associated driving mechanism; the origin for the characteristic shapes of the UV resonance line profiles, particularly the absorption component; and the apparent association between outburst state and the wind existence. Resolution of all these issues depends on understanding the dynamics of the wind. In this paper we describe one and two dimensional models for disk wind dynamics.

Using 1D analytic models we have explore the physical conditions necessary for the existence of a disk wind, and study the dependence of wind speed and mass loss rate on radius. This leads to a criterion which must be satisfied by the rate of increase in the radiation field with height above the disk surface and by the parameters describing the line radiation pressure force (c.f. Castor, Abbott and Klein, 1976).