If the Earth had no continents, an ideal atmospheric circulation system would be marked by: (1) an equatorial belt of low pressure; (2) polar centers of high pressure; and (3) two intermediate belts, a high pressure (the Horse Latitudes) at about 30° and a low pressure in the vicinity of 60°. The low-pressure zones would be convergences (winds blowing in) and the high-pressure zones divergences (winds blowing out). Since the Earth is rotating, wave patterns would develop along the convergences and these would become the great storm generating belts. But the critical modification in this ideal pattern is the asymmetric presence of continents; meridional land masses and mountain belts block the 60° convergence zone in the Northern Hemisphere, but in the Southern Hemisphere this is a clear waterway—the “Southern Ocean”—all around the Earth.
As a result of the thermal characteristics of contients and oceans, semipermanent centers of high and low pressure tend to build up and remain along...
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References
Gentilli, J., 1949. Air masses of the Southern Hemisphere, Weather 4, 258–261, 292–297.
Lamb, H. H., 1972. Climate: Present, Past and Future, vol. 1, London: Methuen.
Rossby, G. C., 1945. The scientific basis of modern meteorology, in Handbook of Meteorology, F. A. Berry, E. Bollay, and N. R. Beers (eds.). New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 502–529.
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© 1987 Van Nostrand Reinhold
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Fairbridge, R.W., Oliver, J.E. (1987). Centers of action . In: Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_34
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