What affects wind patterns?
Friction
Pressure gradients
Latitude
Coriolis Effect
Friction that landforms, especially hills and mountains, create as air moves across the surface.
Friction always acts opposite to the direction of movement of the air.
The friction imposed on the wind slows the air's rate of movement and diverts its direction.
Friction layer is the layer of air that is influenced by friction caused by the surface.
The friction layer varies in height across the Earth depending on the surface configuration.
Wind speed increases with height above the surface.
The pressure gradient is the force that is responsible for triggering the initial movement and accelerating a parcel of air from a high atmospheric pressure region to a low pressure region, resulting in wind.
The greater the pressure difference over a given horizontal distance, the greater the force and hence the stronger the wind.
The Coriolis Effect then bends the wind away from its straight-line path. Friction further alters the path of the wind.
Latitude of a point is measured in terms of its distance from the equator toward one of the earth's poles.
An point on the equator has a latitude of zero degree.
The North Pole has a latitude of 90o North and the South Pole has a latitude of 90o South.
Global winds are winds that blow steadily from a specific locations over long distances.
Global winds are created by the unequal heating of Earth's surface.
Temperatures near the poles are much lower than they are near the equator.
Air above hot areas expands and rises. Air from cooler areas then flows in to replace the heated air. This process is called circulation.
Coriolis Effect makes winds curve instead of blowing in a straight line from the poles to the equator due to the rotation of the Earth.