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WHAT MAKES THE WIND BLOW?. Recall the effect of solar radiation.

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Presentation on theme: "WHAT MAKES THE WIND BLOW?. Recall the effect of solar radiation."— Presentation transcript:

1 WHAT MAKES THE WIND BLOW?

2 Recall the effect of solar radiation

3 At the Equator  Atmosphere is heated  Air becomes less dense and rises  Rising air creates low pressure at the equator  Air cools as it rises  Water vapor condenses (rains) as the air cools with increasing altitude  As air mass cools it increases in density and decends bac to the surface in the subtropics (30 o N and S), creating high pressure  This circulation is called the Hadley Cell

4 Air always move from an area of High pressure to an area of Low pressure

5 Hadley Cell

6 Global Wind Pattern

7 Global Winds Greater heating of the atmosphere over equator causes air to expand, become less dense and rise- this is a permanent low pressure belt - Very humid Warm equatorial air then travels some distance north and south of equator and descends in subtropical regions around 30° latitude; when it descends, it becomes compressed and denser and creates a high pressure belt in subtropics - Very Dry This descending subtropical air spreads along earth's surface both back towards the equator (these are the trade winds, between 0-30° N or S) and also to higher latitudes (westerly wind belts, 30-60° N or S)

8 Coriolus Effect When decending air comes into contact with the earth in motion.

9 If the Earth didn't rotate we would only have a a single circulation cell in each hemisphere.

10 Because of fluid motion on a rotating sphere, Earth has three circulation cells in each hemisphere:

11 Sea Breezes


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