geography Lab exercise

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1001Unit5cLocalRegionalWinds.pdf

Local and Regional Winds Ocean Circulation

Unit 6c

Local and Regional Winds Land/Sea Breeze

Mountain/Valley Breeze

Katabatic Winds

Compressional Winds

Monsoons

Land/Sea Breeze

• thermal circulation • best developed in summer • land heats up during day, creates relative low

pressure forming sea breeze • land cools off at night creates relative high pressure

forming land breeze

Mountain/Valley Breeze

• thermal circulation • best developed in summer • slopes heat up during the day causing an upslope

wind (valley breeze) • slopes cool off at night causing a downslope wind

(mountain breeze)

Katabatic Wind Cold downslope wind cold air = greater density – therefore, moves downslope – cold air drainage

Compressional Winds • Warm downslope winds – air warms as it descends downslope

Compressional Winds n Examples: n Chinook (Rockies) n Santa Ana (S. Calif.) n Foehn (Alps)

Monsoon

• a wind system that reverses itself seasonally • thermal circulation • land cools off in winter, produces high pressure • land warms up in summer, produces low pressure

Ocean Circulation

General Ocean Circulation

Ocean Currents • Movement

– frictional drag by prevailing winds – alteration by Coriolis Force – continental banking and deflection

Gyres

• Ocean currents circling around subtropical high pressure cells

Warm Currents • Equatorial areas and East Coasts – e.g., Gulf Stream, N. Atlantic Drift, Kuroshio,

Brazil, Agulhas

Cold Currents • West Coast locations and Polar zones

– California, Peru, Benguela, Canary, W. Australia