ESS205H1 Lecture 3: 3 - Atmosphere and Hydrosphere
Document Summary
Importance of the atmosphere: buffers out some of the bad solar radiation, ozone is good because it filters out uv radiation. Layers of the atmosphere (bottom to top: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere air is very thin. Black line represents temperature (changes between hot and cold) Weather everyday what"s happening (short term: wind speed, pressure, Climate average of weather over a long period of time (long term) Convection occurs because of differential heating (solar energy not evenly distributed around the earth) Three convection cells in the northern hemisphere and three in the south because of the coriolis effect. Because of the rotation we have these convection cells: polar cell, ferrel cell, hadley cell. Why are the winds going in different directions: n hemisphere all are moving clockwise, s hemisphere counter clockwise. Blue arrows cold air, red arrows hot air. Air gets heated (heated air can hold more water)
