CAS ES 144 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Coriolis Force, Sea Surface Temperature, Wind Shear

• School: Boston University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: CAS ES 144
• Professor: Lawford Anderson

Document Summary

3 simultaneously formed hurricanes originating from the atlantic (katia, irma, jose) Irma started in the oceans off western africa in a tropical depression. Coriolis force is a divergence of a straight pass on a rotational system. The eye of the storm is the point of rotational axis. Air moves from the bottom to the top of the storm until it is pushed out. Convection cells are when light air rises and heavy air sinks. Upward movement is a low pressure system and the downward movement is a high pressure system. Hurricanes create low pressure systems that pick up steam and vapor when the ambient temperature is hot enough. Heat and vapor are necessary to create stable convection cells. Once steam is away from the atmosphere and cools, it contracts and returns back to the surface to be reintroduced into the convection cycle. Categories of hurricanes are dependent on wind speeds category 4-5 storms reach wind speeds of around 14--50 mph.