ABSTRACT
Earth's atmosphere is in perpetual motion: movement which is striving to eradicate the differences in temperature and pressure between different parts of the globe. It seems that rapid rotation, like that of Earth, sets up forces which disturb the simple circulation of the atmosphere, particularly near the axis. Convergence and divergence can also be found as a result of speed variations within a uniform air flow as well as in ridges and troughs in the upper atmospheric flows. The rapid development of computing power has made it possible to model the physical processes which operate in the atmosphere and the oceans and to simulate Earth's atmospheric circulation realistically. The pattern of easterlies and westerlies in the upper atmosphere is only part of the total picture. Earth's rotation, acting through the Coriolis force, and friction modify the simple pattern of circulation initiated by the pressure gradient force to give the complex systems the authors find in the atmosphere.
