Thread: Where does the wind blow?

Stare at that a while and think - does it follow all the rules of thumb? Mmmmm - no, one I left out is that when the ITCZ migrates away from the equator, the inflow on the equator-ward side of it tends to switch direction. Think of it as the same as the way the southern lows have air spiraling in one way, while in the northern hemisphere it spirals the other. If there's a pronounced low *spot*, the spiraling bit holds, whereas if it's a trough, the 'ideal shifted ITCZ behavior' rules. So that means my two seasonal ideals need slight revisions, like so:

Yeah, my Aurora wind maps don't show that back-curving when the wind crosses the equator. Call them Version 0...

So that makes the 'completed' northern summer pattern look like:

Well, phooey. Now that makes SE Paidixira wetter in Summer. Dryish air sourced from that high to the SE, but it passes over ocean before it crosses The Cusp. The area's still pretty dry in winter, based on the location of the high. If this was my planet, I'd evaluate whether I needed The Cusp to be desert. If I was intent upon it being seriously dry, I'd think if I could plant a set of coastal mountains across the very south coast of The Cusp. If it was a pretty strong set of mountains, it would dry out the air on the lee side.

If you DO want The Cusp to be desert, hmmmmm.... I could probably consoldate the two summer highs south of Paidixira into one, that hangs near The Cusp. Of maybe strengthen the leftmost and drag it near The Cusp, and shove the right one out in the ocean a bit to the right of where it sits now. <shrug> What do you think, Slipguard?


Before I go on to the northern winter, does this make sense? I have further explanation in mind related to this atmospheric circulation stuff, such as the rain shadow effect, how these surface winds drive ocean currents, and typical tracks of tropical cyclones.

This all clears the waters, yes. I think the direction you're going in is clearly defined, and I think I want to follow it. The Cusp simply has to be impenetrable for an invading force. It could definitely work as a dense tropical jungle story-wise. Summer precipitation gets my green light, sir!

P.S.If the Cusp goes that direction could those kinds or densities of jungle show up elsewhere in Paidixira, like say, in Valpyra or Komagi, or would the Cusp's biome be unique compared to the rest of the continent?

P.P.S. What do you know about how the placement of trade winds and pressure centers effect sailing routes?

I'm working on a planet that's rather different to Earth, and I'm unsure how that will affect the atmospheric circulation. It's rather smaller (5716 km equatorial radius), but has higher surface gravity (1.1g) due to having a big core. Its day length is 11 hrs 32 minutes, and the axial tilt's about 10 degrees. I'm wondering if that increased rotation speed will result in there being more than three circulation cells.

I've read that with faster rotation, the cells can "tear" into more - five N and five S next, I assume. Look at Jupiter and Saturn for a "many bands" effect. Of course their parameters are WAY different from Earth or your planet. My gut feeling is doubling the speed won't spawn more circulation bands, but that's based on no expertise whatsoever.

Hmmmm... but in looking up books on the subject of planetary circulation, I ran across a guy I work with as a reviewer.... let me ask him if he knows useful texts on the subject, or if he has one I can borrow.

Small world....