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Atmosphere …exploring climate science Science Museum, London This is the transcript of an animation voice-over in the Climate Science Info Zone exhibit. Title: Climate system: Movement of wind and water Voice-over: male The climate has many interconnected components. Two of them, wind and water transport heat and moisture around the planet. Warm air rises at the equator and flows both north and south towards the poles, driving colder polar air towards the equator near the surface. This is a ‘convection cell’. If the Earth didn’t rotate, there would be one convection cell in each hemisphere and the prevailing winds at the surface would flow directly north and south. But the planet’s rotation changes the direction of airflow, breaking up the circulation into three cells in each hemisphere. Winds that would blow straight from north to south or south to north in the tropics get curved round, forming the easterly ‘trade winds’ between zero and 30 degrees latitude the westerly winds between 30 and 60 degrees latitude, and the easterly winds at the poles. Sailors have used these prevailing winds to help them cross oceans for hundreds of years. Like the winds, ocean currents carry heat from the equator to the poles and the water’s movement is also deflected by the Earth’s rotation. This is one of many ways that different parts of the climate system influence each other. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ClimateChanging/ClimateScienceInfoZone/ExploringEa rthsclimate/1point1/1point1point2