Ocean currents, climates & Biomes help

[Storminator]

Hey Storm,
I have been doing some research on that myself.

The earth is on an angle to the sun. The Equator catches the most sunshine, so it is the warmest. However it is also a zone of low pressure. It is warm and wet.

At 30 degrees north and south of the equator. There is a high pressure zone. The air is dry, and since it is still quite close to the equator, it catches much sunlight. Dry and Warm.

At 60 degrees north and south. We find another low pressure area. It is a little bit further away from the equator, so it catches less sunlight. This is a temperate area. The air is wet and cool.

At 90 degrees/the poles. We have another high pressure zone, creating a cold and dry area. If Antartica did not have any snow or ice on top of it, it would be as dry as the sahara.

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The pattern that occurs when air rises warm, and descends cool, creates six donut shaped belts around the earth. Called the Hadley Cells, The Ferrer Cells and the Polar Cells.

The wind pattern in these cells go like this

North Pole
<--
60 degrees north
-->
30 degrees north
<--
equator
<--
30 degrees south
-->
60 degrees south
<--
South pole

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Mountains often have a dry and a wet side. When the wet air hits the mountain, it is unable to pass, It rains on one side, creating a rainshadow on the other. Following the weather patterns, you can now find out where those area's are.

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The Ocean currents follow the wind patterns. When it his a landmass, it bends, sometime it bends enough to enter another wind cell. Creating a stream and making an area or colder than it should be according to its latitude. For example, Norway and Greenland lay on the same latitude, but because of the gulf stream, Norway is much warmer.

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For interesting reads, google: Hadley Cell, Coriolis Effect, Gulf Stream.

Well, there are a few tutorials around on how to determine the climates in a more-or-less realistic fashion. It however really depends on just how detailed you want this to be. The most recent and the most detailed is Azelor's tutorial.

Also, I'd recommend making a WIP thread in the Regional/World mapping section for feedback, as that tends to be more active, so you're more likely to receive advice/opinions. Basically, just start simple, say, with creating a map of the oceanic currents (those should be relatively easy to do), and then post it so people can comment on it. That is, if you want to do this the "hard way" and follow Azelor's steppe-by-steppe tutorial. Just be aware that it's a fairly time consuming process, but on the positive side you're likely to learn quite a few things about how Earth's climate system works as part of the process .

Thanks for your input! I'm not wanting to go super-detailed, just enough to make it believable and start placing cultures and stuff.