Coriolis Effect Mini Lesson

• Uneven heating of the Earth's surface.

• The directions are influenced by the Coriolis Effect.

What Influences Global Wind Patterns

• In a rotating frame of reference (e.g: the Earth) you observe a deflection from a straight line

• Freely moving objects are deflected to the "right" in the Northern Hemisphere and to the "left" in the Southern Hemisphere when viewed from an outside perspective.

What Is the Coriolis Effect?

• The magnitude depends on speed and latitude.

  • Faster/higher latitudes experience greater deflection.

• Due to this, Global Wind Patterns swap directions across the equator

• Doldrums (areas of calm winds and low pressure) occur at the Intertropical Convergence Zone near the equator.

What causes the Coriolis Effect?

• Deflection creates the prevailing wind patterns (the Westerlies, Polar Easterlies, and the Trade Winds) and determine weather patterns around the world.

• Organizes and steers these storm systems (cyclones and hurricanes) influencing their tracks and intensity.

• Northern Hemisphere storms rotate counterclockwise,

• Southern Hemisphere storms rotate clockwise.

How does the Coriolis Effect affect weather patterns?

• Deflection of ocean currents helps to create large-scale circulation patterns in the oceans

  • EG: the North Atlantic Gyre and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

How does the Coriolis Effect affect ocean currents?