Geography Assignment - Winds
Geography Assignment - Winds
and rises, leaving low pressure areas behind. When air hits the
equator, it heats up and rises, eventually being pulled down to
the poles, where it becomes chilled, sinking close to the surface
of the ocean and then being pushed back toward the equator by
the pressure of cooling air from above. This creates a continuous
cycle of air which moves slowly towards the equator near the
surface of the Earth, with the air above moving toward the poles.
(PREVAILING) WESTERLIES
What are Westerlies?
Winds which blow from the west towards the east located
above the subtropical highs in the Northern Hemisphere,
and below the subtropical highs in the Southern
Hemisphere are called westerly winds, after the direction
from whence the winds come.
Prevailing westerlies in the Northern Hemisphere are
responsible for many of the weather movements across the
United States and Canada.
Prevailing Winds
What are prevailing winds?
The prevailing wind is the wind that blows most frequently
across a particular region.
Different regions on Earth have different prevailing wind
directions which are dependent upon the nature of the
general circulation of the atmosphere and the latitudinal
wind zones.
Categories
On the global scale, prevailing winds are divided into three main
categories:
The northeast and southeast trade winds
The westerlies
The polar easterlies.
Their varying locations and directions come from how the earth
rotates and how the sun heats the atmosphere. For example, the
sun's rays hit the equator most directly and thus, steadily heat
the atmosphere there, which leads to a continuous rise of warm
air around the equator.
Movement
The rising air at the equator gradually drifts north and south,
where it eventually cools, sinks and, because of the convection
effect, travels back to the equator. This continuous circulation of
air -- the trade winds -- was used by ancient sailors to sail from
Europe to the Americas since the trade winds blow from east to
west.
The prevailing westerly winds, because they're warmer than
polar air, are drawn to the poles. Conversely, the colder, polar
easterly winds seek warmer atmosphere and blow away from the
poles. This basic pattern of heating and cooling and the
convection effect from the earth's dominant winds.
Coriolis Effect The earth's rotation causes air to move in a circular motion.
The rotation of the Earth causes an interesting phenomenon
on free moving objects on the Earth. Objects in the
Northern Hemisphere are deflected to the right, while
objects in the Southern Hemisphere are deflected to the left.
When air meets at the equator, it is deflected due to a
phenomenon called the Coriolis effect, which is caused by
the rotation of the Earth. The deflection causes the winds to
divert to the West, creating a steady flow of wind which is
termed easterly because winds are named for the
direction from which they originated, rather than the
direction in which they are headed.
The coriolis Effect and pressure gradient work against each
other. Pressure gradient pushes winds outward, while the
Coriolis Effect moves winds to the right or left. Often these two
forces reach a balance, causing winds to blow sideways along
the pressure gradient, not getting any further out from a high
pressure or closer to a high pressure. This type of wind is
known as a geostrophic wind.