Circulation of the Atmosphere

In this chapter
• Air Masses and Fronts

• Distinguish between macroscale, mesoscale, and microscale winds.

• types of local winds and describe their formation.

• the three-cell model of global circulation.

Air Mass
• Large unit of air in which temperature and moisture conditions are
uniform at a given altitude.

• Moves separately from surroundings

• temperature and moisture conditions determined by SOURCE REGION

of air mass

• modify the local weather of places they invade

• are modified by the places they invade

Properties of source region:

• determined by underlying surface (ocean or land)

Moisture: • continental “c”, maritime “m”

• determined by latitude
Thermal: • Polar “P”,
• Tropical “T”,
• Equatorial “E”,
• Arctic “A”,
• Antarctic “AA”
• Idealized continent (centre)
• Produces continental (c) air
masses.
• It is surrounded by oceans,
producing maritime air masses (m)
• Tropical (T) and equatorial (E)
source regions provide warm- or
hot-air masses.
• Polar (P), Arctic (A), and Antarctic
(AA)  colder air masses of low
specific humidity (dry).
• Polar air masses (mP, cP) originate
in the sub-arctic latitude zone, not
in the polar latitude zone.
• Meteorologists use the word
‘polar’ to describe air masses from
the sub-arctic and sub-antarctic
zones.
 Fronts
• Front: the boundary between two
unlike air masses
• unlike in temperature, moisture, or
both

• In addition to this polar front, we can

also have situations in which a cold-air Polar Front:
mass temporarily invades a zone
occupied by a warm air mass during
the passage of a weather system. where polar
• Cold front, and tropical
• Warm front, air masses are
• Stationary front, and in contact
• Occluded front
Cold Front Weather conditions behind the front:
• cold temperatures
• Clearing with little precipitation
• Rising pressures
• Cumulus and altocumulus clouds
• Westerly or northwesterly winds

• In a cold front, a cold air mass

lifts a warm air mass aloft.

• The upward motion can set

off a line of showers or
thunderstorms.

Weather conditions near the front:

• Rapid drop in temperature
• Heavy precipitation (hail and
lightning)
• Cumulonimbus clouds
• Gusty and variable winds
Weather conditions ahead of the front:
• Warm temperature
• Light precipitation
• Falling pressures
• Cirrus and altocirrus clouds
• Southerly or southwesterly winds
 Cold front

• Cold air is advancing

• 20 mph
• leading edge is steep
• unstable along front: warm air rises over cold air
rapidly
• short duration (hours)
• heavy precipitation in narrow band behind front
• followed by clear weather
• Symbol :
Warm Front
1. warm air moves into a
region of colder air, as the
cold air retreats.

2. the cold air mass remains in

contact with the ground
because it is denser. Weather conditions ahead of
the front:
3. the warm-air mass is forced • cool temperatures
• Cirrus, cirrostratus,
aloft, but this time it rises
altostratus, stratus,
up on a long ramp over the nimbostratus clouds
cold air below. • Falling pressures
• Southerly or southeasterly
Weather conditions behind the front: winds
• Warm temperatures
• Clearing Weather conditions near the front:
• Falling pressures • rising temperatures
• Stratocumulus clouds or fair • Light precipitation
• Southerly or southwesterly winds • Steady or falling pressures
• Stratus and nimbostratus clouds
• Variable winds
 Warm Front
4. This rising motion, called
overrunning, creates stratus—
large, dense, blanket-like clouds
that often produce precipitation
ahead of the warm front.

5. If the warm air is stable, the

precipitation will be steady.
Weather conditions ahead of
the front:
6. If the warm air is unstable, • cool temperatures
convection cells can develop, • Cirrus, cirrostratus,
producing cumulonimbus clouds altostratus, stratus,
with heavy showers or nimbostratus clouds
thunderstorms. • Falling pressures
• Southerly or southeasterly
Weather conditions behind the front: winds
• Warm temperatures
• Clearing Weather conditions near the front:
• Falling pressures • rising temperatures
• Stratocumulus clouds or fair • Light precipitation
• Southerly or southwesterly winds • Steady or falling pressures
• Stratus and nimbostratus clouds
• Variable winds
Warm front
• Cold air is retreating
• 10 mph
• leading edge is not steep
• warm air gently climbs over cold air
• duration (days)
• stratus and nimbostratus clouds
• light precipitation in wide band ahead of front
• Symbol:
Stationary front
• no movement of air masses
• formed when a polar air mass loses its own
characteristics and stops flowing in a particular
direction.
• Both the warm and cold fronts, if not moving with
enough speed or strength to take over the other,
shall lead to the formation of a stationary frontal
zone.
• The front persists until one of the two air masses
grow stronger or another wind mass directs a
change.
Weather map symbol :
• precipitation at the front:
• not much on warm side
• stratus clouds and steady precipitation on cold
side
 Weather conditions behind the front:
Occluded front
• cold temperatures
• Light precipitation leading to clearing
• Rising pressures
• Cumulus clouds or clear skies
• Westerly or northwesterly winds

• A cold front overtakes a warm

front. (density difference)
• The warm air is pushed aloft, so
that it no longer touches the
ground.
• This abrupt lifting by the denser
cold air produces precipitation.
Weather conditions ahead of the front:
Weather conditions near the front:
• cool temperatures
• falling temperatures
• Light to moderate precipitation
• increasing precipitation
• falling pressures
• Low but steady pressures
• Cirrus, cirrostratus, altostratus,
• Nimbostratus or cumulonimbus clouds
nimbostratus clouds
• Shifting winds
• Easterly or southerly winds
 Occluded front
• Symbol :
Winds
• What is it?
• Causes…
• Description
• Beaufort scale

devised in 1805 by
the Irish
hydrographer
Francis Beaufort
(later Rear Admiral),
a Royal Navy officer
• Earth has a highly integrated wind system.
• Can be thought of as a series of deep rivers of air
that encircle the planet.
• Embedded in the main currents are vortices of
various sizes.
• including hurricanes, tornadoes, and mid-
latitude cyclones.
• Like eddies in a stream, these rotating wind
systems develop and die out with somewhat
predictable regularity.
• Some last for only few minutes (dust devils)
• whereas larger and more complex systems, such as
mid-latitude cyclones and hurricanes, may survive
for several days.
Small- and
Large-scale
circulation

Microscale
Mesocale
Macroscale
 Microscale winds
• Smallest scale of air motion
• Chaotic winds
• Normally lasts for seconds
to few minutes
• Example  simple gusts,
dust-devils (small, well-
developed vortices)
Microscale winds
• Dust Devil
• Arid regions
• Resemble tornadoes  but much smaller and less intense
• Few metres in diameter and ~ 100 metres high
• Short-lived phenomena  usually die out within minutes
• Tornadoes associated with convective clouds
• Dust devils form on days when clear skies dominate
• They develop from the ground upward.
• Surface heating  afternoon when temperatures are high.
• when the air near the surface is considerably warmer than the air a few dozen
meters overhead,
• the layer of air near Earth’s surface becomes unstable.
• In this situation, warm surface air begins to rise, causing air near the ground to be
drawn into the developing whirlwind
Mesoscale winds
• Generally last for several minutes and may exist
for hours.
• Usually < 100 km across
• Some mesoscale winds (thunderstorms and
tornadoes) have a strong vertical component.
 Macroscale winds
• Largest wind patterns

• Planetary-scale patterns can remain unchanged for weeks at a time

• Smaller macroscale circulation is called synoptic scale.

• These wind systems are about 1000 km in diameter

• Smaller macroscale systems are tropical systems and hurricanes

Structure of Wind Patterns
• Common practice to divide atmospheric motions according to size.

• Global winds are a composite of motions on all scales.

• Eg: rivers  large eddies  within it smaller eddies  and still smaller eddies.

• Hurricanes appear as a large cloud moving slowly across the ocean

• The large cloud contains many mesoscale thunderstorms
• The thunderstorms consist of numerous microscale bursts.
Local winds
• Examples of mesoscale winds (timeframe mins to hours; size  1-
100 km).
• Cause for winds  pressure differences that arise because of
temperature differences caused by the unequal heating of Earth’s
surface.
• Most local winds are linked to temperature and pressure differences.
• Resulting from variations in
• topography or
• in local surface conditions.
• Land and Sea Breezes
• Mountain and Valley Breezes
• Chinook winds (Foehn)
• Katabatic winds
• Country Breeze
1). Land and Sea breezes
• Sea Breeze:
• During daylight, land is heated more
intensely than is an adjacent body of
water.
• As a result, the air above the land heats
and expands, creating an area of high
pressure aloft.
• This, in turn, causes the air above the
land to move seaward.
• This mass transfer of air aloft creates a
surface low over the land.
• A sea breeze develops as cooler air over
the water moves landward toward the
area of low pressure.
• Shortly after a sea breeze begins  drop in air
temperatures over the land (5-10 0C).
• Cooling effect noticeable:
• ~100 kms inland in the tropics
• ~50 kms in the mid-latitudes

• The cool sea breezes begin shortly before

noon.
• Reach their greatest intensity in the mid-
afternoon

• Smaller-scale sea breezes  along the shores

of large lakes
• Example: Cities (Chicago) near the Great Lake
benefit from the lake effect during the
summer.
Land Breeze
• At night, the reverse takes place
• Land cools more rapidly than the sea,
and a land breeze develops
• Airflow is off the land.
2). Mountain and Valley Breezes
• Valley Breeze:
• Air along mountain slopes is
heated more intensely than
air at the same elevation
over the valley floor.

• This warm air glides up the

mountain slope and
generates a valley breeze.
• Mountain Breeze:
• After sunset, the process is
reversed.
• Rapid heat loss along the
mountain slopes cool the air,
which drains into the valley.
 3). Chinook (Foehn) Winds
• Warm, dry winds called chinooks
sometimes move down the slopes of
mountains in the United States.
• Similar winds in the Alps are called foehns.
• Usually created when a strong pressure
gradient develops in a mountainous region.
• As the air descends the leeward slopes of
the mountains, it is heated adiabatically (by
compression).
• Because condensation may have occurred
as the air ascended the windward side,
releasing latent heat, the air descending
the leeward side will be warmer and drier
than at a similar elevation on the windward
side.
• Any wind blowing down the slope of a Katabatic (Fall) Winds
mountain.
• Created  high ice sheets or snowy
elevated plateaux rationally close to lower,
comparatively warmer regions, often
coasts.
• These winds flows from high elevations of
mountains, plateaus, and hills down their
slopes to the valleys or planes below.
• It can rush down elevated slopes at storm
speeds, but the majorities are not as strong
as that, and many are of the order of 10
knots (18 km/h) or less.
https://www.qsstudy.com/geology/katabatic-wind
• These winds exist in many parts of the
World and there are many diverse names
for katabatic winds depending where they Mistral  French Alps to the Mediterranean Sea.
are situated and how they are formed Bora  Balkan peninsula to Adriatic Sea
Country Breezes
• It’s a mesoscale wind..
• Associated with large urban areas.
• Characterized by a light wind blowing into the city from the surrounding
countryside.
• In cities, the massive buildings composed of rock-like materials tend to retain the
heat accumulated during the day more than the open landscape of outlying
areas.
• The result is that the warm, less dense air over cities rises, which in turn initiates
the country-to-city flow.
• A country breeze is most likely to develop on a relatively clear, calm night.
• One of the unfortunate consequences of the country breeze is that pollutants
emitted near the urban perimeter tend to drift in and concentrate near the city’s
center.
Global Circulation – Three Cell Model
• Because of the earth’s curvature, more
radiation falls in equatorial regions than at
the poles. (Trewartha & Horn, 1980).
• To restore equilibrium, an interchange of
heat from tropics to poles occurs through
movement of air masses. (Barry & Chorley,
1992)
• This latitudinal transfer of energy occurs in
several ways:
• movement of sensible heat
Source: NASA
• movement of latent heat
• ocean circulation
• For each packet of air that moves polewards,
a similar quantity moves towards the tropics,
setting up circulation cells (also affected by
the coriolis forces of the earth’s rotation).
• Hadley Cell: The zones between the equator and roughly 30°
latitude north and south.
• Near the equator 
• warm air rises  it releases latent heat during the
formation of cumulus towers  this provides the energy
that drives the Hadley cells.
• As the flow aloft moves poleward, the air begins to subside in a
zone between 20° and 35° latitude.
• Two factors contribute to this general subsidence:
1. Radiation cooling:
• As upper-level flow moves away from the stormy equatorial
region, radiation cooling becomes the dominant process. As
a result, the air cools, becomes more dense, and sinks.
2. Coriolis Force (CF):
• CF becomes stronger with increasing distance from the
equator…
• This causes the poleward-moving upper air to be deflected
into a nearly west-to-east flow by the time it reaches 30°
latitude.
•This restricts the poleward flow of air.
• The subsiding air between 20° and 35° latitude is
relatively dry because it has released its moisture
near the equator.

• In addition, the effect of adiabatic heating during

descent further reduces the relative humidity of the
air.

• Consequently, this zone of subsidence is the site of

the world’s subtropical deserts.

• The Sahara Desert of North Africa and the Great

Australian Desert.

• Further, because surface winds are sometimes weak

in the zones between 20° and 35° latitude, this belt
was named the horse latitudes.
• From the center of the horse latitudes, the surface flow
splits into two branches—
• one flowing poleward and
• another flowing toward the equator.
• The equatorward flow is deflected by the Coriolis force
to form the reliable trade winds,
• so called because they enabled early sailing ships to
move goods between Europe and North America.
• In the Northern Hemisphere, the trades blow from the
northeast, while in the Southern Hemisphere, the trades
are from the southeast.
• The trade winds from both hemispheres meet near the
equator, in a region that has a weak pressure gradient.
• This zone is called the doldrums.
• Here light winds and humid conditions provide the
monotonous weather that is the basis for the expression
“the doldrums.”
Ferrel Cell

• Based on air ascent (60 degree N latitude) and air cooling

(30 degree N latitude), a second circulation is formed in the
area between the 60th and 30th latitude.

• Near ground level, there is an air transport towards the

poles.

• In the northern hemisphere, the air on the ground is

distracted to the right.

• The winds from the West are called westerlies.

• The polar front is located on the border between the polar

cell (cold) and the Ferrel Cell (warm).

• This border is usually between the 60th and the 70th

latitude. In this area, depressions often occur.
Polar cell
• The circulation in a polar cell is driven by subsidence near the poles
• It produces a surface flow that moves equatorward; this is called the
polar easterlies in both hemispheres.
• As these cold polar winds move equatorward they eventually
encounter the warmer westerly flow of the midlatitudes.
• The region where the flow of cold air clashes with warm air has been
named the polar front.
• Near the 60th latitude, the winds are heated and rise up.
Idealized Zonal Pressure Belts
• Uniform Earth surface – Imaginary…
• Each hemisphere  two east-west
oriented belts of high pressure and
two of low pressure.
• Equatorial low  low-pressure zone
(warm rising branch of the Hadley
cells).
• Marked by abundant precipitation
• Trade winds converge
• Referred as the Intertropical
convergence zone (ITCZ)
Idealized Zonal Pressure Belts
• Uniform Earth surface – Imaginary…
• Subtropical highs-
• High-pressure zones
• 200 to 350 on either side of the equator
• Westerlies and trade winds originate and go their
separate ways

• Subpolar lows-
• low-pressure convergence zone
• 500 to 600 on either side of the equator
• Clash between polar easterlies and westerlies

• Polar highs-
• Polar easterlies originate
• High surface pressure  because of surface cooling
• Cold and dense air  exerts higher-than-average
pressure.
 www.earth.nullschool.net
Semi-permanent Pressure systems: The Real world
• Previously, we considered the global pressure
systems  continuous belts around the Earth.
• In reality, Earth’s surface is not uniform.
• The only true zonal distribution of pressure 
along the subpolar low in the SH; where the
ocean is continuous.
• To a lesser extent, the equatorial low is also
continuous.
• At other latitudes, particularly in the NH,
• There is a higher proportion of land compared to
ocean,
• the zonal pattern is replaced by semipermanent
cells of high and low pressure.
 Semipermanent Pressure systems: The Real world
• The pattern shown is always in a state of flux
because of seasonal temperature changes.
• These changes serve to either strengthen or
weaken these pressure cells.
• In addition, the position of these pressure
systems moves either poleward or
equatorward with the seasonal migration of
the zone of maximum solar heating.
• As a consequence of these factors, Earth’s
pressure patterns vary in strength and
location during the course of the year.
• observed pressure patterns are circular (or
elongated) instead of zonal (east-west bands).
• Most prominent features  subtropical
highs.
• These systems are centered between 20° and
35° latitude over the subtropical oceans.
• some pressure cells are year-round
features—the subtropical highs, for example.
• Others, however, are seasonal.
• The main cause of these variations is the
greater seasonal temperature fluctuations
experienced over landmasses, especially in
the middle and higher latitudes.
Jet Streams
• narrow ribbons of high-speed winds
• They meander for a few thousand
kilometers.
• These fast streams of air, once
considered analogous to jets of water,
were named jet streams.
• Jet streams occur near the top of the
troposphere
• widths – 100 to 500 kms
• Wind speeds: 100 kph to 400 kph
• Large temperature
differences at the surface
produce steep pressure
gradients aloft and hence
faster upper-air winds.

• These large temperature

contrasts occur along linear
zones called fronts.

• The most prevalent jet

stream occurs along a major
frontal zone called the polar
front and is appropriately
named the polar jet stream,
or simply the polar jet
• Summary…