BIO120H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Westerlies, Horse Latitudes, Hadley Cell

• School: UTSG
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIO120H1
• Professor: James Thomson

Document Summary

Part of earth closest to sun, moves btw two tropics throughout year, you have rising air, and puts other stuff in train. As air rises, has a lot of water vapour in it, then condenses as rain. Solar equator = 23 north to 23 south. Intertropical convergence zones itcz shifts seasonally, producing rainy and dry seasons in some parts of the tropics heating of earth is affected by closeness of sun balance btw water and land. Land heats faster than water = thermal inertia. Has a complicated path, doesn"t just move up and down. Influences on weather patterns: coupled cells + coriolis effect = prevailing wind patterns. Air going s to n gets twisted to w to e flow = prevailing westerlies. Twists: the air is being pushes across the surface of a spinning sphere, to a place with slower spinning. The atmosphere spins with the earth, due to gravity.