Formation of winds due to uneven heating of the earth | uneven heating of the earth

 Formation of winds due to uneven heating of the earth

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Formation of winds due to uneven heating of the earth

Moving air is called wind. You can feel it on

the ground and high up in the atmosphere. The I wind can be highly destructive if it blows too hard. I can also do useful work for us. It can move power saling ships, windmills and modern electric generators (aerogenerators).

Now the question arises how is a wind or winds caused? Basically, all kinds of winds are caused due to the uneven heating of the earth. Two important situations are discussed below.

( a) Uneven heating due to shape of earth and
its inclination.

The earth is almost a round sphere inclined at an angle of 23.5° to its path around the Sun. Due to this, the regions in the equatorial regions receive more amount of heat than the regions near the poles. Thus, the air around equatorial regions expands and rises up. To take its place the air from the colder regions starts blowing towards equator, thereby producing a wind. So it is expected the air in northern hemisphere should move from north to south and in southern hemisphere from south to north. However, this does not happen on account of rotation of earth from west to east. So the air in northern region blows in south west direction and in the southern hemisphere in the north west direction.

(b) Uneven heating of land and sea

 The earth gets five times hotter as compared to sea water on receiving the same amount of heat. You must have  already learnt about the land and the sea breezes . These are called local winds

Similar winds on a much larger scale are formed when we think of much bigger land masses and the sea/oceans surrounding them. Let us take the example of India which is a huge land mass between the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal.

In summer, in the months of May and June, the Sun shines equally on the water and land mass However, the land mass (Indial gets very hot as compared to water around it. The air above India gets hot, becomes light and rises upwards. This results in the drop of pressure. Thus, the cold air, laden with moisture from the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal starts blowing towards Indian land mass. This continues for the month of July and August. It causes a lot of rains all over India.

This wind cycle is called Monsoon. The word Monsoon is derived from the Arabic word Mausam, which means season. Monsoon is the lifeline for the Indian subcontinent. It provides us plenty of water for agricultural activities.

In winter, the direction of wind flow gets reversed. The Indian subcontinent becomes very cold as compared to water in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The air above the sea becomes warm and rises up. To take its place the cold air from North-eastern states, Bengal and Orissa starts blowing towards sea. It picks up moisture. When this air reaches the Tamil Naidu, it causes a lot of rains. This wind cycle is called winter monsoon.

in addition to the monsoon, there are other wind cycles such as trade winds, westerlies, etc., in different parts of the world. All these wind cycles are caused due to uneven heating of land and water as well as the shape of earth.

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Knowledge Booster 

• All storms are low pressure systems. Destructive capacity of a wind storm increases with the increase in wind speed. So, it is important to measure wind speed before we take some precautionary measures.

• Anemometer are used  for measuring wind speed.

Anemometer  - Formation of winds due to uneven heating of the earth

• The winds of different speeds have been provided with a different name and the number according to internationally accepted scale, commonly called Beaufort Scale.