Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
complicated pattern in which individual, rotating storms play an important part. Within
these storms warm air masses rise, releasing latent heat and gaining potential energy.
They then become intermixed with descending cold air and gain sensible heat (Figure
6.12). The rotating storms are moving, so the position of this intermixing changes
constantly, although there is a tendency towards concentration in certain zones in the
northern hemisphere. Labrador, Newfoundland and Greenland are associated with these
areas of activity, experiencing cool, southward-moving flows of air (Figure 6.13). Britain
and Scandinavia, in contrast, tend to be influenced far more by warm northward-moving
air, a phenomenon that greatly improves their climate.
All these transfers of energy through the atmosphere are highly variable, and major
differences in the intensity and character of transfers occur over time. Thus the flows of
energy represent net increments, often produced by individual, temporary processes. It is
for this reason that it is difficult to detect the nature of energy transfer direct from the
general circulation pattern.
WIND PATTERNS
The general circulation of the atmosphere reflects the operation of the atmospheric
system as a whole. It is clear, however, that the system is composed of many important
subsystems and it is these - the main wind belts of the
