EARTHSC 2GG3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Jet Stream, Northern Hemisphere, Coriolis Force
30 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Tropical cyclones: storm system of low-pressure surrounded by strong rotaing winds, with torrenial rains, thunderstorms, tornadoes, high surge of seawater. The air that is drawn in at sea level from outside the storm, rises near the eye and spreads out; cold dry air sinks in the eye. Rising air and condensaion can build up into a convecive chimney" of thunderstorms. Convecion may strengthen when air rises to high elevaions. Warm air rises, expands and cools, releases latent heat of condensaion. The center of the storm is a low-pressure zone called the eye. Winds rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. The highest wind speeds exist along the edge of the eye wall. Rain bands are clouds that spiral inward around the center, counter-clockwise in the northern. There is an increase in intensity towards the center of the hurricane. Sair-simpson hurricane scale: barometric pressure and average wind speed. Lower barometric pressure stronger the hurricane is.
