General Knowledge - Other Winds

Jet Streams

• Jet streams are narrow and meandered strip of fast blowing air currents found in the upper altitude (i.e. upper troposphere or lower stratosphere).

El Niño

• El Niño, also known as El Niño Southern Oscillation (or ENSO), refers to the cycle of warm and cold temperatures, as measured by sea surface temperature, of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean. However, the cool phase of ENSO is known as "La Niña."

• El Niño is accompanied by high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern Pacific (as shown in the following image).

Cyclone

• Cyclone is a large-scale air mass that keeps rotating around a strong center of low pressure. It rotates counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

• In the northeastern Pacific oceans and the Atlantic Ocean, the tropical cyclone is known as “Hurricane.”

• In the Indian and south Pacific Oceans, the tropical cyclone is called as “Cyclone,” and in the northwestern Pacific Ocean it is known as “Typhoon.”

• In the South Indian Ocean (specifically South-west of Australia), a tropical cyclone is known as “Willy-Willy.”

Anticyclone

• Anticyclone is a large-scale wind system that circulates around a central region of high atmospheric pressure. It rotates clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere (the following image illustrates the comparative structure of cyclone and anti-cyclone).