The Air-Sea Connection
How are the ocean and the atmosphere connected?
Air and Sun
The sun is the source of most of the energy that drives the biological and physical processes in the world around us.
- The air that we breathe is made up of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide and all other gases
- the four layers of the atmosphere are the Thermosphere, Mesosphere, Stratosphere, Troposphere.
- The relationship between water vapor, air temperature and air density is that as the temperature rises air pressure decreases and density decreases. When you add water vapor the density decreases even more.
- Precipitation is what causes rain and snow, when warm air rises it cools and water vapor condenses out to form clouds.
The Coriolis Effect
- Is the tendency for the path of a moving to deflect to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
- The Earths rotation is caused by the Earths rotation, which adds an apparent sideways motion to objects moving over the Earths surface.
- The wind patterns exist in smaller regions called Atmospheric circulation.
- The most important atmospheric circulation cells are the Hadley cells
- Between approximately 30 degrees & 60 degrees latitude you find the Ferrel cells