Geography Lab Exercise
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