What is Trade Winds?

Information about Trade Winds

''This article is about a weather phenomenon. For other uses, see Tradewind.




The trade winds are a pattern of wind that are found in bands around the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds are the prevailing winds in the tropics, blowing from the high-pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the low-pressure area around the equator. The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the northern hemisphere and from the southeast in the southern hemisphere.

Their name derives from the Middle English 'trade', meaning "path" or "track," and thus the phrase "the wind blows trade," that is to say, on track. In German they are known as Passat winds.

In the zone between about 30° North and 30° South, the surface air flows toward the equator and the flow aloft is poleward. A low-pressure area of calm, light variable winds near the equator is known to mariners as the doldrums. Around 30° N. and S., the poleward flowing air begins to descend toward the surface in subtropical high-pressure belts. The sinking air is relatively dry because its moisture has already been released near the Equator above the tropical rain forests. Near the center of this high-pressure zone of descending air, called the "Horse Latitudes," the winds at the surface are weak and variable. The name for this area is believed to have been given by colonial sailors, who, becalmed sometimes at these latitudes while crossing the oceans with horses as cargo, were forced to throw some overboard to conserve water.

The surface air that flows from these subtropical high-pressure belts toward the Equator is deflected toward the west in both hemispheres by the Coriolis effect. Because winds are named for the direction from which the wind is blowing, these winds are called the northeast trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere and the southeast trade winds in the Southern Hemisphere. The trade winds meet at the doldrums. Surface winds known as "westerlies" flow from the Horse Latitudes toward the poles. The "westerlies" meet "easterlies" from the polar highs at about 50-60° N. and S.

Among the most well known trade winds is the alizé (sometimes alize), a steady, mild northeasterly wind which blows across central Africa and the Caribbean. It brings cool temperatures between November and February.

A tradewind is a wind that goes across the sea and in the olden days it used to carry trade ships across the world.
Tradewind can refer to:
  • Trade wind, a wind pattern
  • Trade Wind, an alternate name for the 1998 film At Sachem Farm
  • Tradewind, one of the characters from The Incredibles
  • Convair R3Y Tradewind, an American 1950s heavy transport flying-boat.

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WIND (SOLARWIND) was a NASA spacecraft launched on November 1, 1994. It was deployed to study radio and plasma that occur in solar wind, in the Earth's magnetosphere. The spacecraft's original mission was to orbit the Sun at the L1
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equator is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole. It thus divides the Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. The equators of other planets and astronomical bodies are defined analogously.
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The prevailing winds are the trends in speed and direction of wind over a particular point on the earth's surface. A region's prevailing winds often show global patterns of movement in the earth's atmosphere. Prevailing winds are the causes of waves as they push the ocean.
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tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere, at approximately 23°30' (23.5°) N latitude, and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23°30' (23.5°) S latitude.
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Horse latitudes or Subtropical High are subtropical latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south. This region, under a ridge of high pressure called the Subtropical ridge, is an area which receives little precipitation and has variable winds mixed with calm.
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equator is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole. It thus divides the Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. The equators of other planets and astronomical bodies are defined analogously.
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Northern Hemisphere or northern hemisphere[1] is the half of a planet that is north of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator.
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Southern Hemisphere or southern hemisphere[1] is the half of a planet that is south of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator.
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low for short, is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lowest with relation to the surrounding area. Tropical storms, extratropical cyclones, subpolar cyclones, and subarctic cyclones are called low-pressure cells in some English-speaking communities.
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Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), also known as the Intertropical Front, Monsoon trough, Doldrums or the Equatorial Convergence Zone, is a belt of low pressure girdling Earth at the equator.
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A high, high-pressure, or high pressure area' is a region where the atmospheric pressure is greater than the surrounding area. In some countries, these regions may be referred to as anticyclones.
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Horse latitudes or Subtropical High are subtropical latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south. This region, under a ridge of high pressure called the Subtropical ridge, is an area which receives little precipitation and has variable winds mixed with calm.
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Coriolis effect is the apparent deflection of moving objects from a straight path when they are viewed from a rotating frame of reference. The effect is named after Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, a French scientist who described it in 1835, though the mathematics appeared in the tidal
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The Westerlies or the Prevailing Westerlies are the prevailing winds in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude, blowing from the high pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the poles.
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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Caribbean (Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe
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