Scribd
Upload
58 views

Coriolis Effect

The document discusses the Coriolis effect and how it causes deflection of objects as they travel long distances around Earth. It also describes the Hadley cell, Ferrel cell, and polar cell atmospheric circulation patterns and how the Coriolis effect influences winds and air flow in each cell.

Uploaded by

angelicamariz.tan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
58 views

Coriolis Effect

The document discusses the Coriolis effect and how it causes deflection of objects as they travel long distances around Earth. It also describes the Hadley cell, Ferrel cell, and polar cell atmospheric circulation patterns and how the Coriolis effect influences winds and air flow in each cell.

Uploaded by

angelicamariz.tan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

CORIOLIS EFFECT

The Coriolis effect describes the pattern of deflection taken by objects not firmly connected to the
ground as they travel long distances around Earth. The Coriolis effect is responsible for many large-scale
weather patterns.

In simple terms, the Coriolis Effect makes things (like planes or currents of air) traveling long
distances around the Earth appear to move at a curve as opposed to a straight line.

The Earth's rotation means that we experience an apparent force known as


the Coriolis force. This deflects the direction of the wind to the right in the
northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. This is why
the wind-flow around low and high-pressure systems circulates in opposing
directions in each hemisphere.

The Coriolis effect was described by the 19th-century French physicist and
mathematician Gustave-Gaspard de Coriolis in 1835. He formulated theories
of fluid dynamics through studying waterwheels, and realized the same
theories could be applied to the motion of fluids on the surface of the Earth.
The Coriolis Effect is an apparent effect produced by a rotating frame of reference. The effect occurs when an
object moving along a straight path is viewed from a non-fixed frame of reference. The moving frame of
reference is the Earth which rotates at a fixed speed. Therefore, when an object moving in a straight path is
viewed from Earth, it appears to lose its course because of Earth’s rotation.

The key to the Coriolis Effect lies in Earth’s rotation. The earth rotates faster at the equator than it does at the
poles. Earth being wider at the equator, the equatorial regions race nearly 1,600 kilometres per hour. At the
poles, the earth rotates at a rate of 0.00008 kilometres per hour.
HADLEY CELL
The Hadley cell is an atmospheric circulation pattern in the tropics that produces winds called the tropical
easterlies and the trade winds. In the Hadley cell, air rises up into the atmosphere at or near the equator, flows
toward the poles above the surface of the Earth, returns to the Earth’s surface in the subtropics, and flows back
towards the equator.

This flow of air occurs because the Sun heats air at the Earth’s surface near the equator. The warm air rises,
creating a band of low pressure at the equator. Once the rising air reaches the top of the troposphere at
approximately 10-15 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, the air flows toward the north and south poles. The
Hadley cell eventually returns air to the surface of the Earth in the subtropics, near 30 degrees north or
south latitude.

Air near the surface flows toward the equator into the low pressure area, replacing the rising air. This area of
low pressure and converging winds (air flowing together) is called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
These winds are turned toward the west by the Coriolis effect and become the trade winds or the tropical
easterlies.

The air that returns back to the surface of the Earth in the subtropics produces a band of high pressure called
the subtropical high. Once the air reaches the surface, some air flows toward the equator from the subtropical
high to the lower pressure in the ITCZ to become part of the trade winds.

FERREL CELL

In the middle cells, which are known as the Ferrel cells, air converges at low
altitudes to ascend along the boundaries between cool polar air and the warm
subtropical air that generally occurs between 60 and 70 degrees north and
south. The circulation within the Ferrel cell is complicated by a return flow of
air at high altitudes towards the tropics, where it joins sinking air from the
Hadley cell.
The Ferrel cell moves in the opposite direction to the two other cells (Hadley
cell and Polar cell) and acts rather like a gear. In this cell the surface wind
would flow from a southerly direction in the northern hemisphere. However,
the spin of the Earth induces an apparent motion to the right in the northern
hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere. This deflection is caused by
the Coriolis effect and leads to the prevailing westerly and south-westerly
winds.

Polar cell

The smallest and weakest cells are the Polar cells, which extend from
between 60 and 70 degrees north and south, to the poles. Air in these cells
sinks over the highest latitudes and flows out towards the lower latitudes at
the surface.
At the poles, air is cooled and sinks towards the ground forming high pressure, this known as
the Polar high. It then flows towards the lower latitudes. At about 60 degrees N and S, the cold
polar air mixes with warmer tropical air and rises upwards, creating a zone of low pressure
called the subpolar low. The boundary between the warm and cold air is called the polar front.
It accounts for a great deal of the unstable weather experienced in these latitudes.

The Hadley and Polar cell are controlled by the suns heat (thermally direct)
whereas the is Ferrell cell is controlled by the other two cells and how the air is
moving in them causing it to be thermally indirect.

You might also like