wellWind Patterns
Essential Questions: (Answer these when we are done reading chapter)
1. How does uneven heating of Earth’s surface result in air movement?
The uneven heating of Earth's surface produces wind because the air temperature and air pressure are different. The differences in the air causes the air to a lower pressure. The movement of this is wind. Uneven heating of the Earth's surface produces air masses of different temperatures. Cold air sinks, forcing warm air to rise.
2. How are air currents on Earth affected by Earth’s spin?
Because of the Coriolis Effect. Winds in the Northern Hemisphere are deflected to the right and in the Southern Hemisphere they are deflected to the left.
3. What are the main or major wind belts on Earth?
Polar Easterlies, Prevailing Westerlies, Tradewinds each of these are found in both hemispheres.
Vocabulary:
. Wind: Air in motion. Movement of air from areas of high pressure to low pressure
. Anemometer: An instrument for measuring the speed of the wind.
. Wind-chill factor: temperature that shows how cold the air feels because of the wind. It is the effect that the wind has of making air feel colder than it actually is.
. Local Winds: Winds that tend to blow over a relatively small area.
. Sea breeze: a breeze blowing toward the land from the sea, especially during the day owing to the relative warmth of the land.
. Land breeze: a breeze blowing toward the sea from the land, especially at night, owing to the relative warmth of the sea.
. Monsoons: A monsoon is a seasonal wind, found especially in Asia that reverses direction between summer and winter and often brings heavy rains.
. Global winds: Winds are named by the direction from which they blow. The globe is encircled by six major wind belts, three in each hemisphere.
. Coriolis Effect: A phenomenon caused by Earth’s rotation. Objects in the Northern hemisphere are deflected to the right and Objects in the Southern Hemisphere are deflected to the left.
. Latitude: imaginary lines that circle the globe from east to west. Also called parallels because the lines parallel, or run in the same direction as the equator.
. Jet stream: Found near the top of the troposphere (where we live). It blows from W to E and can make large loops from N to S. It moves cool air from poles to tropics and warm air from tropics to poles.
. Westerlies: Blows between thirty and sixty degrees latitude, the winds that move toward the poles appear to curve to the east. These winds are called prevailing westerlies, because they blow FROM the west. Prevailing westerlies in the Northern Hemisphere are responsible for many of the weather movements across the United States and Canada.
. Polar easterlies: Winds that blows near the poles and blows FROM the east to the west.
Label the diagram below with the major wind patterns and draw the arrows:
Label the Coriolis Effect diagram:
Key:
Left Side:
Polar Easterlies
Prevailing Westerlies
Tradewinds
Tradewinds
Prevailing Westerlies
Polar Easterlies
Right Side:
Horse Latitudes
Doldrums
Horse Latitudes
Know how to draw the arrows
For each windbelt.
1. The United States in located in the ______.
2. If you were standing on the equator, facing the Northern Hemisphere and you threw a paper airplane or ball, it would curve to the ______.
3. This is because, in the Northern Hemisphere, wind from high-pressure systems pass low-pressure systems on the right. This causes the system to swirl ______. This causes hurricanes to spin ______in the Northern Hemisphere.
4. If you were standing on the equator, facing the Southern Hemisphere and you threw a paper airplane or ball, it would curve to the ______. 5. This causes storms in the Southern Hemisphere to swirl ______.
Key:
1. Northern Hemisphere
2. Right
3. Counter clockwise
4. Left
5. Clockwise