Describe how the conservation of angular momentum plays a role in ...

[berenicecastro]

Describe how the conservation of angular momentum plays a role in the formation of a jet stream.
   
  What will be the ideal response?

Question 2

Explain why summers along the west coast of the United States tend to be dry, whereas along the east coast summers tend to be wet.
   
  What will be the ideal response?

[TheNamesImani]

Answer to Question 1

ANSWER: Angular momentum is always conserved, so the product of the quantity mvr at one time will equal the numerical quantity mvr at some later time. Hence, a decrease in radius must produce an increase in speed and vice versa. When heated air parcels rise from the equatorial surface and approach the tropopause, they spread laterally and begin to move poleward. Because of the curvature of the earth, poleward-moving air constantly moves closer to its axis of rotation (r decreases). Because angular momentum is conserved (and since the mass of air is unchanged), the decrease in radius must be compensated for by an increase in speed.

Answer to Question 2

ANSWER: During the summer, the Pacific high drifts northward. Sinking air on its eastern side produces a strong upper-level subsidence inversion, which tends to keep summer weather along the West Coast relatively dry. Along the east Coast, the clockwise circulation of winds around the Bermuda high brings warm tropical air northward into the United States and southern Canada from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Because sinking air is not as well developed on this side of the high, the humid air can rise and condense into towering cumulus clouds and thunderstorms.