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Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance (for example greenhouse intensification) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than in the planetary average. [1] This is commonly referred to as the ratio of polar warming to tropical warming.
The Hadley cell is a closed circulation loop which begins at the equator. There, moist air is warmed by the Earth's surface, decreases in density and rises. A similar air mass rising on the other side of the equator forces those rising air masses to move poleward. The rising air creates a low pressure zone near the equator.
The general trend in the atmosphere is for temperatures to decrease in the poleward direction. As a result, winds develop an eastward component and that component grows with altitude. Therefore, the strong eastward moving jet streams are in part a simple consequence of the fact that the Equator is warmer than the north and south poles. [34]
Still another definition states that the thermal equator is the latitude at which insolation is identical throughout the year. This is not the same as the astronomical equator because Earth reaches perihelion (the minimum distance from the Sun in its orbit) in early January and is at aphelion (maximum distance) in early July. Therefore ...
Therefore, lesser tilt means a wider annual temperature gap between equator and poles, while greater tilt means a smaller annual temperature gap between equator and poles. [4] (At an extreme tilt, such as that of Uranus, the poles can receive similar annual surface insolation to the equator.) In particular, at Earth temperatures, and all else ...
The cycle swings between warmer and cooler seawater in a region along the equator in the tropical Pacific. La Niña is marked by cooler-than-average ocean water in the region.
The interface between the cold dry air mass of the pole and the warm moist air mass farther south defines the location of the polar front. The polar front is centered roughly at 60° latitude. A polar vortex strengthens in the winter and weakens in the summer because of its dependence on the temperature difference between the equator and the poles.
The difference of 0.0178 m/s 2 between the gravitational acceleration at the poles and the true gravitational acceleration at the Equator is because objects located on the Equator are about 21 km (13 mi) further away from the center of mass of the Earth than at the poles, which corresponds to a smaller gravitational acceleration.