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Course: NOVA Labs > Unit 1
Lesson 6: Clouds- The making of a cloud
- The making of a cloud quiz
- Why so many cloud types?
- Why so many cloud types quiz
- Clouds and weather
- Clouds and weather quiz
- Severe storms
- Severe storms quiz
- The climate wild card
- The climate wild card quiz
- The Coriolis effect
- The Coriolis effect quiz
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The Coriolis effect
In the northern hemisphere, big storms spin counterclockwise as they travel, but in the southern hemisphere they spin clockwise. Why do storms spin in different directions depending on their location?
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- So if a hurricane went from the southern hemisphere to the north what would happen?(29 votes)
- I don't think a hurricane can go from south to north because the Coriolis force is weak at equator(7 votes)
- what is el nino and how it develops and what is its relationship with indian monsoon?(6 votes)
- El Nino is the periodic warming of the earth's oceans, resulting in above-average temperatures around the world. El Nino occurs when the trade winds die out, making the ocean temperatures unusually warm.
From the bit of online research that I did, it looks like warming in the central Pacific Ocean results in drought conditions, while eastern Pacific warming results in normal monsoon conditions.
If your parents say it is ok, you can click on the links to my sources to learn more about this topic:
http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/profile/researchers-unravel-mystery-el-ni%C3%B1o%E2%80%99s-link-indian-monsoon
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/faq.html
Hope this helps! :)(9 votes)
- and also in the video at2:05to2:10when it says that the airplane moves to the left, but it moves to the right, is it just me or is it a typo....(8 votes)
- However, in response to the above answers, if we alter our perspective and stand on the equator and look down, towards the South Pole, the paper airplane does turn to the left. Not sure but putting it out there as a possibility.(2 votes)
- Is the Coriolis Effect increased with rotational speed? If so, I would expect much stronger cyclonic storms on planet with thick atmospheres, and fast rotations. Is that a correct conclusion?(3 votes)
- Is the rotation of the earth the reason that the jet stream flows from west to east in the Northern Hemisphere?(3 votes)
- Well jet streams are powered by another force so it depends if it is naturally moving or being pushed by a different source.(3 votes)
- What are the different cloud names, and their main functions?(3 votes)
- You can learn about the different clouds here: https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/nova/clouds/v/climatewildcard.(2 votes)
- My doubt is all about finding the direction of coriolis force by using the direction of the moving object. I really find it difficult to determine the direction of coriolis force through direction of moving object. Because, the direction of the moving object is given in the form of degree and that too in a confusing way. For instance, an object is moving at 60°N latitude/colatitude. Here direction of the moving object is given in the form of latitude which is very confusing to me and just because of that I don't know how to find the direction of coriolis force?(3 votes)
- If the direction of rotation for hurricanes is different between the hemispheres, then no storm could ever cross the equator because it would destroy itself, correct?(3 votes)
- Can a hurricane be fast or strong enough to travel and damage the whole entire world?(3 votes)
- No. It is not likely that a hurricane will travel across the entire earth. The hurricane needs water to stay at hurricane status. If a hurricane goes far enough inland, it will get weaker and eventually become non-existent.(2 votes)
- So do gyres move clockwise in the northern and hurricanes move counterclockwise? We learned in school that gyres move clockwise in the northern and counterclockwise in the southern...this made me confused.(2 votes)
Video transcript
If You've Ever Watched the News during a hurricane or Wintertime Nor'easter, you've probably noticed that big storms spin, over time as they travel. In the northern hemisphere, they spin counterclockwise. But if you are watching a storm in the southern hemisphere, you'd see it spinning clockwise. Why do storms spin in different directions depending on their location? And, why do they spin in the first place? A storm's rotation is due to something called the Coriolis Effect, which is a phenomenon that causes fluids like water and air to curve as they travel across or above Earth's Surface. Here's the basic idea. Earth is constantly spinning around its axis, from west to east. But because earth Is a sphere, and wider in the middle, points on the equator are actually spinning faster around the axis, than points near the poles. So imagine you were standing in Texas and had a magic paper airplane that could travel hundreds of miles. If you threw your airplane directly northward, you might think it would land straight north. Maybe somewhere in Nebraska, but Texas is actually spinning around Earth's axis faster than Nebraska is, because it's closer to the Equator. That means that the paper airplane is spinning faster as well, and when you throw it that Spinning momentum is conserved. So if you threw your paper airplane in a straight line toward the North, it would land somewhere to the right of Nebraska. Maybe in Delaware, so from your point of view in Texas the plane would have taken a curved path to the right. The opposite would happen in the Southern Hemisphere. An object traveling from the equator to the south would get deflected to the left. So what does this have to do with hurricane spinning? Well, at the center of every hurricane is an area of very low pressure. As a result, the high pressure air surrounding the center, or eye of a storm is constantly rushing toward the low-pressure void in the middle. but because of the coriolis effect, the air rushing toward the center is deflected off course. In the northern hemisphere. The volumes of air on all sides of the eye keep getting tugged slightly to the right. The air keeps trying to make its way to the middle, and keeps getting deflected, causing the entire system to spin in a counterclockwise direction. In the southern hemisphere, where the coriolis effect pulls air to the left, the opposite happens; storms spin around the eye in a clockwise manner.