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ATMO 1300
Chapter 10 – Mid-Latitude Cyclones
Understanding Weather and Climate
Aguado and Burt
ATMO 1300
Mid Latitude Cyclone Life Cycle
• Polar front separates
cold easterlies and
westerlies.
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Mid-Latitude Cyclones: Life Cycle and Formation Mechanisms, Schemes and Mind Maps of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
An overview of mid-latitude cyclones, their life cycle, and the role of vorticity, upper air motions, divergence, and convergence in their formation. It covers the concepts of polar front, cyclogenesis, cyclone maturation, occlusion, and the impact of zonal and meridional flows on mid-latitude cyclones.
Typology: Schemes and Mind Maps
2021/2022
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ATMO 1300
Chapter 10 – Mid-Latitude Cyclones
Understanding Weather and Climate
Aguado and Burt
ATMO 1300
Mid Latitude Cyclone Life Cycle
- Polar front separates cold easterlies and westerlies.
ATMO 1300
Mid Latitude Cyclone Life Cycle
- A kink forms on the front and cold air starts to move southward. Warm air starts to move northward.
- Cyclogenesis occurs
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Mid Latitude Cyclone Life Cycle
- Cold air continues to move south, and warm air north. Fronts develop and low pressure develops in the center.
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Precipitation Patterns
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Vorticity
- Vorticity - the turning of an object usually
with respect to the vertical direction.
- Relative Vorticity – vorticity relative to the
Earths surface
- Speed Shear
- Curvature
- Earth vorticity – Vorticity due to the Earth’s
daily rotation about its axis.
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Vorticity
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Vorticity
- Clockwise rotation yields negative vorticity
- Counterclockwise rotation yields positive
vorticity
- Related to convergence and divergence!
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Divergence and Convergence
- Divergence aloft, caused by decreasing
vorticity, draws air upward, providing a
lifting mechanism that can initiate or help
maintain surface low pressure.
- Convergence aloft, caused by increasing
vorticity, promotes sinking air, and surface
high pressure.
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Divergence and Convergence
- Speed Divergence and Convergence
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Divergence
and
Convergence
- Diffluence and Confluence
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Linking Upper Levels to the Surface
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Mid-Latitude Cyclone
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Mid-Latitude Cyclone
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Mid-Latitude Cyclone
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Large-Scale Flow Patterns
- Zonal flow – upper level winds moving
mainly west to east.
- No vorticity
- No divergence or convergence
- Meridional flow – upper level winds
moving north and south
- Provide for vorticity
- Provide for convergence and divergence
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Baroclinic Conditions
- Cold Air Advection Warm Air Advection
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