Introduction to atmospheric circulation

Source:
Thompson
education.

D r. J a v i e r A m e z c u a
Climate
Recall that this is the long-term behaviour of the atmosphere
over a certain region.

Question:

Where does it rain more?

--- Mexico City
--- London
--- Kuala Lumpur
Annual behaviour
A more precise question: which city has the largest total rainfall?

Total ~ 2100 mm/year

Total ~ 800 mm/year

Total ~ 700 mm/year
Annual behaviour
A more precise question: which city has the largest total rainfall?

Total ~ 2100 mm/year

Total ~ 800 mm/year

Total ~ 700 mm/year
Variability
What if we consider monthly variability?

Total ~ 2100 mm/año

Total ~ 800 mm/año

Total ~ 700 mm/año

Climate and circulation
As we will see later, climate depends on three main things:

--- Latitude
--- Altitude
--- Proximity to oceans
--- Circulation
Circulation
Flow of 'air' in the atmosphere (horizontal and vertical).

What causes the air to flow? (Halley)

Three main elements affect the circulation:

--- Differential heating (coming from the sun)

--- Effects of Earth rotation (Coriolis effect)
--- Bottom boundary conditions
Scales of motion
Other planets: Jupiter's red spot

First observed: Hooke, 1664 Source: NASA-JPL

Element 1: differential heating
Consider the following setup (land-sea breeze).

Remember:

Cold air tends to sink.

Warm air tends to rise.

Halley's idea of circulation
Edmund Halley traveled around the world and took observations.

Map drawn by Halley 1686

He thought the wind patters were due to the 'rarefaction' of air

due to differential heating. He only considered diurnal cycles, so
his theory was not right.
George Hadley
He was a lawyer and an
amateur physicist and
meteorologist.

He read Halley's ideas and

created his own theory (1735).

He anticipated the Coriolis

force, but made a mistake*.

Source: pantheon.world
Hadley's idea of circulation
There is differential heating due to latitude.

Convection cells must exist in a planetary-wide scale!

Note:
Differential heating is NOT constant through the year (that is why
we have seasons).

This will become important later (the cells move!).

William Ferrel (1817-1891)
He was an American school
teacher.

He got his own books, and

educated himself in sience. He
read Newton, Laplace, etc.

He set himself to improve

Hadley's theory.
Source: wikipedia.com
The three cell model
For several reasons, the Hadley cell cannot maintain itself. It splits.
In reality, we have three cells in each hemisphere.

Their positions shift with the seasons.

The missing part of the puzzle
Hadley started to consider the
effects of rotation on
atmospheric motions. He
thought about conservation of
linear momentum.

Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis
(1792-1843) later corrected
this to conservation of angular
momentum.
Source: wikipedia.com
The Coriolis effect
The Earth spins anti-
clockwise (when seen from
the North).

Motions in the NH are

deflected to the right,
motions in the SH are
deflected to the left.

Where is the Coriolis effect

strongest?

Source: PanGeography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys4vg7EG99o
The full picture

Source: NASA education

Implication for climate zones

Source: NASA education