EAS 1540 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Coriolis Force, Sea Surface Temperature, Heat Capacity
23 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Direct/indirect impacts of el nino on global weather patterns. Peruvian sailors called warm currents off the peru coast. El nino = roughly periodic (3-7 years) warming of coastal water off the coast of peru/ecuador. Air wants to move at a line towards equator. Coriolis turns it to blow from east to west. Coriolis force turns the wind to blow from west to east. Idealized vs actual pattern of global sea level pressure and resulting surface winds. Differences due to unequal heating of land and ocean. Land heats more strongly than the ocean, land cools more than ocean - due to specific heat differences. Winds at ocean surface move towards equator but are deflected to the right (west) by coriolis - forms surface trade winds. Winds aloft move away from the equator but are deflected to the right (east) by coriolis - to complete walker-circulation (over the pacific) Sir walker discovered that this circulation reverses direction.
