Planetary Scale Baroclinty Part 1

What Are Baroclinic Zones
A baroclinic zone is where a temperature and a presurre gradient exists, such as along frontal zones. Baroclinic zones are most common in mid latitude and sub-polar regions of the world, because extratropical cyclones are the systems that dominate the weather in these regions. Tropical regions however, are relatively barotropic, due to the lack of temperature and pressure fluctuations.
I The Dynamics
Planetary Scale Baroclinity
In a sense, the whole earth itself is baroclinically unstable because, it is heated unevenly by the sun. The temperature varies greatly from latitude-to-latitude, from pole-to-pole, from the poles to the equator. The spherical structure of the earth enables various regions to receive the unequal heating from the sun. For example, the equator is actually closer to the sun than the poles. Therefore, the photons take longer to reach the poles. Because of the curved structure, the suns rays are more concentrated at the equator, and more stretched at higher latitudes. As a result of this, the equatorial regions are often the warmest on the earth. Now because of this, air from both sides of the equator will move toward the equator and converge. This global scale region of converging air is commonly called the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) or equatorial trough or front.
CONVECTIVE CELLS

Air converges(or any place that is heated more than anywhere else during the year) at the equator, there it rises due to the instability and condenses at higher altitudes. When the air reaches the apex altitude it is dry, and will begin to diverge and move toward both sides of the equator. When it reaches near 30 degrees north or south, it will sink creating a stable air mass. This is why the primary high pressure systems such as the Bermuda high, and the Azores high are located near subtropical regions. Further, if you look at global water vapor imagery, you will notice that that most of the time the air near the subtropical regions in both hemispheres are drier than anywhere else. Now as the air parcels sink, they will warm adiabatically; some will flow back toward the equator and some will continue to flow toward the equator.

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[TheFrozenropes]

thanks i aced my quiz

[nicegirlatmiami]

this is really interesting