Atmospheric Motion
Atmospheric Motion
Atmospheric Motion
EngH 621
Credit Hours 2
Atmospheric Circulation
By
Dejene Sahlu (PhD)
Outline of talk
Scales of Atmospheric Motion
Winds Interacting with the Environment
Global Winds
General Circulation of the Atmosphere
General Circulation Model
Single-cell
Three-cell
The size and shape of the eddy often depend upon the size and shape of
the obstacle and on the speed of the wind.
Air flowing over a building produces larger eddies that will, at best, be
about the size of the building.
Wind blowing over a fairly smooth surface produces few eddies, but when
the surface is rough, many eddies form.
Global Winds
local winds vary from day to day and from season to season.
As you may suspect, these winds are part of a much larger circulation:
the little whirls within larger whirls.
Indeed, if the rotating high- and low-pressure areas are like spinning
eddies in a huge river, then the flow of air around the globe is like the
meandering river itself.
When winds throughout the world are averaged over a long period,
the local wind patterns vanish, and what we see is a picture of the
winds on a global scale
(b) shows the names that apply to the different regions of the world
and their approximate latitudes
It is driven by energy from the sun.
Excessive heating of the equatorial area produces a broad region
of surface low pressure, while at the poles excessive cooling creates
a region of surface high pressure.
The entire circulation consists of a closed loop with rising air near the
equator, sinking air over the poles, an equatorward flow of air near
the surface, and a return flow aloft.
2. Three-Cell Model
If we allow the earth to spin, the simple convection
system breaks into a series of cells
Although this model is considerably more complex than the single-cell
model, there are some similarities.
The tropical regions still receive an excess of heat and the poles a deficit.
In each hemisphere, three cells instead of one have the task of energy
redistribution.
From the equator to latitude 30°, the circulation closely resembles that of
a Hadley cell, as does the circulation from the poles to about latitude 60°.
Let’s look at this model more closely by examining what happens to the air
above the equator
Over equatorial area,
the air is warm, horizontal pressure gradients are
weak, and winds are light. This region is referred to as
the doldrums. (The monotony of the weather in this
area has given rise to the expression “down in the
doldrums.”)
Here, warm air rises, often condensing into huge
cumulus clouds and thunderstorms that liberate an
enormous amount of latent heat.
This heat makes the air more buoyant and provides
energy to drive the Hadley cell.
The rising air reaches the tropopause, which acts like a barrier,
causing the air to move laterally toward the poles.
The Coriolis force deflects this poleward flow toward the right in the
Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere,
providing westerly winds aloft in both hemispheres.
This convergence (piling up) of air aloft increases the mass of air
above the surface, which in turn causes the air pressure at the
surface to increase.
Hence, at latitudes near 30°, the convergence of air
aloft produces belts of high pressure called subtropical
highs (or anticyclones).
Behind the polar front, the cold air from the poles is
deflected by the Coriolis force, so that the general flow
of air is northeasterly. Hence, this is the region of the
polar easterlies.
summarize all of this by referring back to
there are two major areas of high pressure and two major areas of
low pressure.
Areas of high pressure exist near latitude 30° and the poles;
areas of low pressure exist over the equator and near 60° latitude
in the vicinity of the polar front.
By knowing the way the winds blow around these systems, we have a
generalized picture of surface winds throughout the world.
The trade winds extend from the subtropical high to the equator,
the westerlies from the subtropical high to the polar front, and
there are four semi-permanent pressure systems in the Northern Hemisphere during January. In the
eastern Atlantic, between latitudes 25° and 35°N is the Bermuda-Azores high, often called the
Bermuda high, and, in the Pacific Ocean, its counterpart, the Pacific high. These are the
subtropical anticyclones
AVERAGE SURFACE WINDS AND PRESSURE:
THE REAL WORLD
Note that the sinking air of the subtropical highs produces the major desert
regions of the world.
WESTERLY WINDS AND THE JET STREAM
Winds above the middle latitudes in both hemispheres blow in a more or less west-to-
east direction.
The reason for these westerly winds is that, aloft, we generally find higher pressure
over equatorial regions and lower pressures over polar regions.
Where these upper-level winds tend to concentrate into narrow bands, we find rivers
of fast-flowing air—what we call jet streams.
Wind speeds in the central core of a jet stream often exceed 100 knots and
occasionally exceed 200 knots.