Three-dimensional atmospheric circulation cell located at roughly 30 to 60° North and South of the equator.
A mid-latitude mean atmospheric circulation cell for weather proposed by Ferrel in the 19th century. In this cell the air flows poleward and eastward near the surface and equatorward and westward at higher levels. This is now known to disagree with reality, although it is sometimes used to describe a mid-latitude circulation identifiable in mean meridional wind patterns.
The name given to the middle latitude cell in the 3-cell model of the general circulation.
in the general circulation of the atmosphere, the name given to the middle latitude cell marked by sinking motion near 30 degrees and rising motion near 60 degrees latitude
A zonally symmetric circulation that appears to be thermally indirect (when viewed using height or pressure as the vertical coordinate) first proposed by William Ferrel in 1856 as the middle of three meridional cells in each hemisphere. A similar type of cell was described by Matthew Maury in 1855 and James Thomson in 1857 at about the same time. The Ferrell cell has sinking motion in the same latitudes as the Hadley cell, but has rising motion in higher latitudes (approximately near 60°). The Ferrel cell is maintained by heat and momentum fluxes due to large-scale eddies and by diabatic processes; these processes are illustrated by the Kuo–Eliassen equation.
The Ferrel cell is usually shown between the Hadley and Polar cells, e.g. atmospheric circulation. It is named after William Ferrel, who was concerned with describing the surface flow in the Temperate zone of air that came from the Horse Latitudes, namely the Westerlies. In the region of the Atlantic ocean the Westerlies are the northern part of the general circulation of air about the high pressure system that sits over the Horse latitudes.
