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Geolens

Glossary

417 words used in the labs.

Find a term from the labs, understand the process behind it, and see how it appears in the landscape. Each entry connects an explanation with a real observation and a model you can explore.

Term

Trade winds

The prevailing tropical surface winds blowing towards the equatorial convergence zone. Earth’s rotation gives them an easterly component: they generally come from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. Their position and strength vary seasonally.

What to look for

Terra MODIS, 27 May 2003. Northeasterly trade winds favour wetter, greener windward slopes; leeward slopes are drier. The bright ocean is sunglint.

Related labs

Three-cell circulation →
Hawaiian islands with greener windward slopes, drier leeward slopes and silvery sunglint on the Pacific.
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Explore further with USGS water glossary · USGS volcano glossary · NPS glacial geology · NASA Earth facts. Photograph acknowledgements are collected on the Image credits page.