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The ITCZ is visible as a band of clouds encircling Earth near the Equator. The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ / ɪ tʃ / ITCH, or ICZ), [1] known by sailors as the doldrums [2] or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge.
The ITCZ would be expected to overlie the geographic equator according to symmetric solar radiation. [1] However, the ITCZ is mostly perennial in the northern hemisphere and in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. [2] [3] It was originally explained by the asymmetrical distribution of continents.
The Intertropical Convergence Zone is the result of the northeasterly trade winds and southeasterly trade winds converging in an area of high latent heat and low pressure. [3] As the two trade winds converge, the cool, dry air collects moisture from the warm ocean and rises, contributing to cloud formation and precipitation.
View of the currents surrounding the gyre. The North Atlantic Gyre of the Atlantic Ocean is one of five great oceanic gyres.It is a circular ocean current, with offshoot eddies and sub-gyres, across the North Atlantic from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (calms or doldrums) to the part south of Iceland, and from the east coasts of North America to the west coasts of Europe and Africa.
The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ), a reverse-oriented monsoon trough, is a band of low-level convergence, cloudiness and precipitation extending from the Western Pacific Warm Pool at the maritime continent south-eastwards towards French Polynesia and as far as the Cook Islands (160W, 20S).
August position of the ITCZ and monsoon trough in the Pacific Ocean, depicted by area of convergent streamlines in the northern Pacific. The monsoon trough is a portion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Western Pacific, [1] [2] as depicted by a line on a weather map showing the locations of minimum sea level pressure, [1] and as such, is a convergence zone between the wind patterns ...
The Indian Ocean Gyre, located in the Indian Ocean, is, like the South Atlantic Gyre, bordered by the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the north and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to the south. The South Equatorial Current forms the northern boundary of the Indian Ocean Gyre as it flows west along the equator towards the east coast of Africa.
The Equatorial Counter Current is an eastward flowing, wind-driven current which extends to depths of 100–150 metres (330–490 ft) in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. More often called the North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC) , this current flows west-to-east at about 3-10°N in the Atlantic , Indian Ocean and Pacific basins ...