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The trade winds (also called trades) are the prevailing pattern of easterly surface winds found in the tropics near the Earth's equator, [4] equatorward of the subtropical ridge. These winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. [5]
Trade winds originate more from the direction of the poles (northeast in the Northern Hemisphere, southeast in the Southern Hemisphere) during the cold season, and are stronger in the winter than the summer. [20] As an example, the windy season in the Guianas, which lie at low latitudes in South America, occurs between January and April. [21]
For example, a northerly wind blows from the north to the south. [8] Weather vanes pivot to indicate the direction of the wind. [9] At airports, windsocks indicate wind direction, and can also be used to estimate wind speed by the angle of hang. [10] Wind speed is measured by anemometers, most commonly using
Ekman transport is the net motion of fluid as the result of a balance between Coriolis and turbulent drag forces. In the picture above, the wind blowing North in the northern hemisphere creates a surface stress and a resulting Ekman spiral is found below it in the water column.
A difference in air pressure causes an air displacement and generates the wind. The Coriolis force deflects the air movement to the right in the northern hemisphere and the left in the southern one, which makes the winds parallel to the isobars on an elevation in pressure card. [1] It is also referred as the geostrophic wind. [2]
The wind belts girdling the planet are organised into three cells in each hemisphere—the Hadley cell, the Ferrel cell, and the polar cell. Those cells exist in both the northern and southern hemispheres. The vast bulk of the atmospheric motion occurs in the Hadley cell.
All subtropical gyres are anticyclonic, meaning that in the northern hemisphere they rotate clockwise, while the gyres in the southern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise. This is due to the Coriolis force. Subtropical gyres typically consist of four currents: a westward flowing equatorial current, a poleward flowing, narrow, and strong western ...
Consequently, a wind blowing from the north has a wind direction referred to as 0° (360°); a wind blowing from the east has a wind direction referred to as 90°, etc. Weather forecasts typically give the direction of the wind along with its speed, for example a "northerly wind at 15 km/h" is a wind blowing from the north at a speed of 15 km/h ...