These circulate in the opposite direction, so the surface winds they produce blow in the opposite direction to the trade winds – these are the westerlies.ĭiscovery of these bands of winds and associated ocean currents allowed European explorers, traders and colonisers to expand their ambitions. These great rolling currents in the atmosphere, called the Hadley cells (named for English meteorologist George Hadley), are convection currents that turn in opposite directions, like paired rollers straddling the equator.Īs these surface winds return towards the equator they are deflected to the west by the Coriolis effect – a consequence of the fact that the Earth is rotating – and this creates a band of prevailing winds blowing towards the west: the easterly trade winds.īeyond the Hadley cells are two more great rolling circulation currents: the Ferrel cells, named for a 19th-century US meteorologist. These air masses then return to the equator along the surface as winds to complete this huge vertical loop. Warm air around the Earth’s equator rises before rolling over through high altitude and descending back to the ground at around 30° latitude in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
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