Atmospheric circulation Map

[vorropohaiah]

I've been working on a worldbuilding article that requires quite a few graphics of the process and I've just started working on these now. This is the first of hopefully many such graphics: the Atmospheric Circulation map.

Elyden hadey cells.jpg

Atmospheric Circulation
You can divide both northern and southern hemisphere into three distinct bands between the equator (0O) and 30O, 30O and 60O, and 60O and 90O. These can be called tropical, temperate, and arctic bands. These bands are also used to calculate atmospheric circulation, as seen below. Flora and fauna from one band will struggle to survive in another and biomes are typically unique to each band.

Hadley Cell: warm air rises at the equator and cools as it moves towards to poles, falling at 30O latitude, moving back towards the equator along the earth's surface, where it becomes warm again. Air moving towards the equator collects moisture, giving rainforests the climate they need to thrive. Air moving towards the 30O latitude has lost its moisture and is dry, explaining the many deserts found at such latitudes. Prevailing winds in the Hadley cells blow towards the west and the equator - rain shadows will form on the west sides of continents if the winds are blocked by mountains.

Ferrel Cell: warm air rises from the surface at the 60O latitude, moving either towards the pole or equator (where it becomes part of the Polar Cell or Ferrel Cell, respectively). In the Ferrel Cell cool dry air drops at the 30O latitude. Prevailing winds in the Ferrel cells blow towards the east - rain shadows may form on the east sides of continents if the winds are blocked by mountains.

Polar cell: warm air rises at 60O latitude, moving towards the poles, cooling as it moves eastward, sinking at the pole. This air is dry, which means there is little rainfall.

[snodsy]

Really like this, look forward to seeing the whole series, I do a lot of graphical charts/infographics so I'm fond of this type of information.

You might want to kern the numbers a little tighter as well as the CAP letter on the small cap type, they seem to me a little too open.

Will you be using this font for the entire series? Not sure if you want to stay more antique, but a sans serif font or even a squared serif might work better?

Is there a reason to duplicate the flow on the right hand side, it's not giving me any new information?

Really great books on this subject - Edward Tufte's books are really nice.

[vorropohaiah]

[QUOTE=snodsy;342597]Really like this, look forward to seeing the whole series, I do a lot of graphical charts/infographics so I'm fond of this type of information.

You might want to kern the numbers a little tighter as well as the CAP letter on the small cap type, they seem to me a little too open.

Will you be using this font for the entire series? Not sure if you want to stay more antique, but a sans serif font or even a squared serif might work better?

Is there a reason to duplicate the flow on the right hand side, it's not giving me any new information?

Really great books on this subject - Edward Tufte's books are really nice.[/QUOTEc]

all the maps in the series use the same sfonts used here, and the tracking differs depending on the features represented. I widened the tracking on this map so the words fit the cells better. though if it's\too jarring it can easily be replaced

the 'duplication' is a result of the translucent 3D effect

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

Really good reproduction of the map on wiki but possibly so close you may have to attribute. The original was created by NASA and is solely in the public domain in the USA

As you know the atmospheric direction can change 600 to 900 longitude every ten days and randomly hence chaos theory
Now you have the map and can edit it you can show the impact of such changes on currents weather temperature
Tectonic behaviour also changes atmospheric direction as would nuclear winter or changes in temperature due to Global warming

Best wishes and sorry if I just taught my grandmother to suck eggs

The Sleeping Dragon

[vorropohaiah]

As you know the atmospheric direction can change 600 to 900 longitude every ten days and randomly hence chaos theory

The Sleeping Dragon

never heard of this one. do you have any more information?

[Charerg]

never heard of this one. do you have any more information?

I think he refers to the application of chaos theory in meteorology (ie. the idea that the system is inherently turbulent and not entirely predictable). I don't pretend to have any real understanding about how this is done in practice, but I think the general gist is that minor atmospheric changes on the other side of the globe, for example, can cause changes on the opposite side that eventually evolve into major changes (the butterfly effect). I *think* it's primarily relevant to the formation and life cycle of individual high/low pressure centers (well, it's relevant to the whole globe, I guess, but the ITCZ tends to be fairly predictable), particularly in the relatively weak and unstable Ferrel Cell, though I'm not sure if there is an actual "10-day cycle" associated with this.

That said, this is a different matter from the atmospheric circulation depicted by you, which depicts an idealized system (although the cells do fluctuate a bit seasonally, as you probably know).