Why do currents curve in the northern hemisphere

Also, air with higher pressure will move towards the ones with lower pressure. Again, that is because of the rotation of the Earth. The Coriolis force is responsible for deflecting winds towards the right in the northern hemisphere and towards the left in the southern hemisphere.

Since it impacts the wind direction, ocean currents, lack of coriolis force would have enabled them to move in one direction, impacting the overall climatic conditions.

These are also wind belts. There are three other types of wind belts, also. The Coriolis effect influences wind direction around the world in this way: in the Northern Hemisphere it curves winds to the right; in the Southern Hemisphere it curves them left. The exception is with low pressure systems. The wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure which is mainly caused by temperature difference. When a difference in atmospheric pressure exists, air moves from the higher to the lower pressure area, resulting in winds of various speeds.

Absent a gentle breeze or mighty gale to circulate both warm and cold weather around the Earth, the planet would become a land of extremes. Areas around the Equator would become intensely hot and the poles would freeze solid. Whole ecosystems would change, and some would completely disappear. Surface currents in the ocean are driven by global wind systems that are fueled by energy from the sun. In the Southern Hemisphere, winds blow around a high pressure in an anticlockwise direction and around a low pressure in a clockwise direction.

The rate of change of rotational speed is zero at equator and increases polewards being maximum at the poles. Hence,coriolis effect is zero at equator and maximum at poles.

It is proportional to sin of the latitude. Though the Coriolis force is useful in mathematical equations, there is actually no physical force involved. Instead, it is just the ground moving at a different speed than an object in the air. The Coriolis force is strongest near the poles, and absent at the Equator. The curvature is due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis. The effect was discovered by the nineteenth century French engineer Gaspard C.

He used mathematical formulas to explain that the path of any object set in motion above a rotating surface will curve in relation to objects on that surface. What actually happens is that global winds blow diagonally. The Coriolis effect influences wind direction around the world in this way: in the Northern Hemisphere it curves winds to the right; in the Southern Hemisphere it curves them left.