Hadley cell

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/hadley-cell

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the surface winds?Trade winds (easterlies) flowing equatorward, influenced by the Coriolis effect
2. What is the climate zone association?Tropical rainforests (ascending limb) and subtropical deserts (descending limb)
3. What is the Hadley cell and how does it move air around the Earth?The Hadley cell is a big air swing that lifts warm air near the equator, carries it up and over to the poles, then brings it back down around 30° latitude, creating trade winds and weather patterns.
4. Why does the Hadley cell make tropical rainforests so wet?Warm air rises in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, cools, and releases lots of rain, which feeds the tropical rainforests.

Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ): A belt of low pressure near the equator where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres meet.
Adiabatic Warming: The warming of a parcel of air as it sinks and is compressed by increasing atmospheric pressure.
Tropopause: The boundary in the Earth's atmosphere between the troposphere and the stratosphere.
Subtropical Jet Stream: A high-altitude, high-velocity jet stream located above the subtropical highs.