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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.
A monsoon (/ m ɒ n ˈ s uː n /) is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation [1] but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between its limits to the north and south of the equator.
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.
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).
The ITCZ, as the zone of lowest pressure in the tropical region, is the target destination for the trade winds of both hemispheres. Consequently, with the ITCZ at the Tropic of Cancer, the southeast trade winds of the Southern Hemisphere have to cross the equator to reach it.
The prevailing trade winds are a manifestation of the lower branches of the Hadley circulation, converging air and moisture in the tropics to form the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) where the Earth's heaviest rains are located. Shifts in the ITCZ associated with the seasonal variability of the Hadley circulation cause monsoons.
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 mean location of the ITCZ over the Atlantic Ocean is 5–10 degrees north of the geographical equator. [2] [3] All this asymmetric of ITCZ is the ultimate cause of the annual cycle in equatorial sea surface temperature (SST) in Atlantic by maintaining southerly cross-equatorial winds that intensify in boreal summer/fall and relax in boreal ...