CIRCULATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE 443 



The picture which is presented by these ideal rings starting from 

 latitude 33° in each hemisphere and moving respectively towards the 

 poles and towards the equator is not very complete, because the rings 

 do not continue to move as a whole with an increase or decrease of 

 velocity. If we examine the actual velocity of the air in a given lati- 

 tude, as over the city of Washington or again in the tropics, as over 

 the Barbadoes, we shall find the following facts: At the ground in 

 Washington the wind averages about six meters per second eastward; 

 at an elevation of 2,000 meters the eastward velocity is about eighteen 

 meters per second; at 4,000, it is about twenty-four meters per second; 

 at 6,000, it is about twenty-eight meters per second; and at 10,000, it 

 is about thirty-four meters per second. 



Above this level the air moves eastward at a rate of about forty 

 meters per second; that is, ninety miles per hour. That is to say the 

 eastward velocity or the eastward drift increases upwards with the dis- 

 tance from the ground. Now these velocities are maintained through- 

 out the year with certain seasonal variations, though, of course, they 

 are at times disturbed by certain local circulations as when storms dis- 

 turb the normal movements of the air. The gyrating rings then which 

 we first considered may be more accurately described as sheets of air 

 parallel with the earth's surface which flow over each other at differ- 

 ent speeds, the upper sheets flowing faster than the lower sheets. This 

 may be practically seen in the cirrus clouds which are higher than the 

 cumulus clouds, and move eastward as a whole with twice as great 

 velocity. It is evident that we have here another type of vortex mo- 

 tion. What we first considered in the course of our definition was a 

 vortex in which the inner rings rotate faster than the outer rings, but 

 in this case of the torque in the northern hemisphere, for example, we 

 have the upper rings moving faster than the lower rings. This ap- 

 parent inconsistency may be reconciled by assuming that the axis of 

 the upper rings instead of being a line, as in the other case, is really a 

 spherical surface high above the ground outside the earth's surface, to 

 which the actual motion has to be referred. Mathematically considered 

 such a spherical sheet is in certain aspects equivalent to a line so far 

 as the reference of motion is concerned; that is, the motion may be a 

 maximum along a spherical sheet in one case, or a maximum around 

 an axial line in the other case. 



Turning now to the tropics and examining the motion of the air 

 in a vertical section just as we did in the north temperate zone, we find 

 that the westward motion is distributed very differently. At the sur- 

 face the westward motion is greatest, and it decreases gradually on 

 going upwards from the ground till at 10,000 meters or so it has de- 

 creased to zero, and above that region an eastward motion sets in, grad- 

 ually increasing with the height. The westward branch of the torque 



