Question:
Question: How does the Coriolis Effect affect
temperature? I have searched many resources and I have found a few places
that have mentioned a relation with air pressure, but i have not found
anything that has enough detail or really explains any relationship to
temperature.
Replies:
The Coriolis effect (sometimes called the Coriolis "force", which is
misleading) is a result of the gravitational attraction of the Earth on
the atmosphere. The gravitational attraction of the Earth and the
atmosphere is directed from a point in the atmosphere in a radial
direction toward the Earth's center of gravity (which essentially is the
geographic center of the Earth to a good approximation. The flow of air
moves from a region of higher air pressure to an area of low pressure
tangential to the surface of the Earth. Because of the direction of
rotation of the Earth (in the northern hemisphere) the surface of the
Earth "moves out from underneath" the radial gravitational attraction and
the tangential air flow from high to low pressure. The net effect is a
anti-clockwise circulation about the radial center of the low pressure.
This dynamic process requires vector analysis because the Earth's surface
and the center of the low pressure area are both changing position as a
function of time. The effect of temperature is indirect, because the major
contribution of temperature is the change in the atmosphere's density, and
consequently the gravitational attraction. The larger effect is the
converse -- the change in pressure that results from the rotation of the
atmosphere causes a change in temperature due to changing regions of
pressure difference. All of this gets more involved when moisture is added
to the "mix" of variables because condensation of water vapor into liquid
water involves a large release of energy. These effects can produce
substantial changes in temperature. So thinking of the process as a
"temperature-causing effect" is in a way looking at the effects through
the "wrong end of the binoculars". The larger effect is the Coriolis
effect resulting in significant changes in temperature, rather than
temperature being the driving force.
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