Why climate zones near the equator are more humid than climate zones closer to the poles?
My hypothesis:
because climate near the equator is a combination of cold and hot air and seasons occur.Weather is in constant change and moisture needs to be released.
Am I right?
If not please feel free to share your knowledge!!!
Thanks ![]()
It’s because the equatorial region is in an area known as the intertropical convergence zone. The two key things you need to know is
1.that the equatorial region receives the most solar radiation on the planet and therefore there is more energy in the form of heat in this region to do work, and
2.warm air is able to hold more water vapour than is cold air.
As the air warms it becomes buoyant and begins to rise, just like a hot air balloon rises when the air inside the balloons envelope is heated. As the air rises it begins to cool and the water vapour will begin to condense, form droplets and it begin to rain. In the equatorial regions the air rises in such force and quantity that it becomes the primary driving force in the earth’s atmospheric circulation.
The circulation doesn’t stop there of course because as the air rises and dries more air is rising behind it and the atmosphere forced north and south and will begin to descend back to earth. As the air descends it warms until it reaches the surface as hot dry air. Where this hot dry air descends around the planet in both northern and southern hemispheres is regions that are known as the Subtropical Highs and is responsible for the deserts that encircle the earth such as the Sahara, Gobi and Mojave. A simplified model of the planetary atmospheric circulation shows there are three cells, the Hadley Cell, the Farrel Cell and the Polar Cell. Each cell has its rising and descending air but are not a strong in influencing the climate as is the Hadley Cell.
The polar region is dry because that is the region where the atmosphere descends in the Polar Cell. Region between the Farrel and the Polar Cell where the air ascends gives the planet the boreal forests in the Northern Hemisphere.
This is the simplified model of atmospheric circulation http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect14/atmospheric_circulation.jpg
Basic science. At the temperatures at the poles any moisture in the air condenses. At the equator warmer temperatures keep moisture flowing into the air.
The basic circulation of the air is that it rises at the equator. As it rises, mostly in thunderstorms, the water is removed. When it sinks, it has much less moisture over desert regions or the poles.
Warm air can hold more moisture than the same volume of cold air.
yes you right , i try to explain more . sun rays touch the equator Vertical always. if the location of sun at tropic of cancer or tropic of Capricorn but on equator always same . so it called wet belt like 10north and 10 degree south . on equator mostly water in form of ocean so regularly evaporation , result of too evaporation daily rain
Very basic when water gets hot it releases co2, gets lighter and is absorbed by the atmosphere as humidity. When air cools it condenses and absorbs co2 to make it heavier so it can fall and return to the seas from which it came.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_pump