The apparent deflection of moving air and water, to the right of their direction of travel in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere, caused by the Earth's rotation beneath them rather than by any real sideways force. It is the reason large-scale winds and ocean currents curve rather than travel in straight lines toward pressure differences, drives the rotation of storm systems including tropical cyclones, and vanishes at the equator, which is why tropical cyclones cannot form there.
Facts
Process TypeAtmospheric Circulation 1 Connections
Sources
1. Coriolis Effect (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIntroductionQuote, Introduction
In physics, the Coriolis force is a pseudo-force that acts on objects in motion within a frame of reference that rotates with respect to an inertial frame.
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