At the surface, low pressure systems have a counterclockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere, with the wind turning slightly inward towards the lowest pressure. This causes air to converge, or come together, at the center of the low near the ground. Since the converging air has nowhere else to go, it rises.
What does divergence mean in weather?
Divergence occurs when a stronger wind moves away from a weaker wind or when air streams move in opposite directions. When divergence occurs in the upper levels of the atmosphere it leads to rising air.
What is the definition of convergence zone?
a zone where tectonic plates collide, typified by earthquakes, mountain formation, and volcanic activity.
What is a convergence zone in the ocean?
in the ocean, zones where the surface waters of the ocean come together. They develop owing to unevenness in the wind field above the ocean and in the distribution of water density.
What is convergence rain?
They are a form of convective precipitation that occurs when air rises over land or sea, unlike cold, warm or occluded fronts (dynamic precipitation) that depend on different air masses colliding. Sometimes showers form less randomly in lines or bands when winds blow from different directions and collide.
What is convergence in wind?
Convergence in a horizontal wind field indicates that more air is entering a given area than is leaving at that level. To compensate for the resulting “excess,” vertical motion may result: upward forcing if convergence is at low levels, or downward forcing (subsidence) if convergence is at high levels.
What is divergence and convergence?
Divergence generally means two things are moving apart while convergence implies that two forces are moving together. In the world of economics, finance, and trading, divergence and convergence are terms used to describe the directional relationship of two trends, prices, or indicators.
What does convection in weather mean?
Convection. Generally, transport of heat and moisture by the movement of a fluid. In meteorology, the term is used specifically to describe vertical transport of heat and moisture in the atmosphere, especially by updrafts and downdrafts in an unstable atmosphere.
Is diverging air high or low pressure?
Since according to our rule of thumb, at a given elevation air tends to move from high pressure to low pressure, air diverges out of these high pressure areas aloft moving towards the low pressure areas in the colder air columns on either side, which lowers the pressure on the surface directly underneath the upper
Where is the convergence zone?
The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ – pronounced “itch”) appears as a band of clouds consisting of showers, with occasional thunderstorms, that encircles the globe near the equator. The solid band of clouds may extend for many hundreds of miles and is sometimes broken into smaller line segments.
How does convergence affect rainfall?
Convergence in a horizontal wind field indicates that more air is entering a given area than is leaving at that level. To compensate for the resulting “excess,” vertical motion may result: upward forcing if convergence is at low levels. Moist converging air that rises usually leads to rainfall.
What is convergence and divergence in weather?
convergence and divergence, in meteorology, the accumulation or drawing apart of air, as well as the rate at which each takes place. The terms are usually used to refer specifically to the horizontal inflow (convergence) or outflow (divergence) of air.
How does convergence form clouds?
In the center of low pressure areas, winds converge toward the center of the low due to the effects of friction. Since the air cannot go down into the earth, it must rise up. This lift due to convergence leads to the presence of clouds and precipitation near low pressure centers.
Why do winds converge at the equator?
This is known as the Coriolis effect, which is the apparent shift in the path of any fluid or object moving about the surface of the Earth due to the rotation of the Earth. Near the equator, the trade winds converge into a broad east to west area of light winds.
How are winds named?
A wind is always named according to the direction from which it blows. For example, a wind blowing from west to east is a west wind. The ultimate cause of Earth’s winds is solar energy. When sunlight strikes Earth’s surface, it heats that surface differently.
What is a frontal rainfall?
Frontal rain
This is when cold air meets warm air in a ‘weather front’. Warm air rises, so when it bumps into the cold air, it rises above it. However, like when you’re climbing a hill, the higher you go up in the atmosphere, the colder it is. So the warm air that has risen up in the atmosphere now begins to cool down.
What is convergence in physics?
Convergence is the physical joining together of light rays. Light rays tend to come together at a point (called point of convergence) from different directions.
