GPHY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Trade Winds, Atmospheric Circulation, Outback
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Gphy102 lecture 8: how the earth changed history. Material on test: we tend to think of wind as chaotic, weather systems including winds follow the same pathway around the world again and again. Columbus: columbus observed winds blow away from africa thought he could use those winds to sale all the way around the world, he was right, he landed in the bahamas. Instinctive understating of how the winds blow across the atlantic: trade winds, winds that blow in a south-westerly direction. Found another wind that blows from west to east: between 20-30 degrees latitude wind blew west to east, 40-50 degrees latitude it blew in the opposite direction. Trade winds cause the loop and cause an atmospheric cell. Spin of earth deflect these winds so they move towards the americas: 3 major atmospheric cells around the earth. Jet streams: powerful fast moving winds that whip along the boundary of two cells.
