Key Points from This Chapter

KEY POINTS FROM THIS CHAPTER

• Air masses flow through convection in a vertical direction up or down. Warm air is not very dense, so it rises and cold air is dense, so it falls

• If the earth did not rotate, they would only be flow of air from the poles to the equator and back again. Because of the Coriolis effect, you have six different convection belts around the earth.

• Because of the Coriolis effect, air masses will be deflected to the right or eastward in the northern hemisphere and to the left or westward in the southern hemisphere.

• There are predictable patterns of weather on earth based on the movement of air masses. There is a polar jet stream and a subtropical jet stream, formed where two stable air masses meet one another.

• Isobars and isotherms are used to tell you areas of equal temperature and equal pressure on a weather map. You can predict where low or high pressure systems are located based on the isobars.

• You should familiarize yourself with the different symbols you see on a weather map or surface map.

• Wind speed and direction can be detected in several ways; however, an anemometer is usually sufficient unless you have a Doppler radar system to detect wind speed and direction in severe weather systems.