Cyclones, anticyclones, and their types and characteristics are described as follows:
Meaning of cyclone: Cyclone is commonly used to refer to the center of low air pressure, around which the air pressure increases gradually. Because of this, the winds flow from all around directions to the center.
Their shape is usually elliptical, circular or W shaped.
1. Temperate cyclone: Such types of cyclones originate in the mid latitudes. At the center of the airturbulence in mid-latitudes, there is less pressure in center and more pressure is there on the periphery. They are often called low or deep or trough. These cyclones originate from the interaction of the air – masses of opposite nature. The area of these cyclones is found in both the hemispheres between 35° to 65° latitude. Clouds originate in the atmosphere from these cyclones. Under favorable conditions, these cause either rainfall or snowfall.
2. Tropical cyclone: This type of cyclone is found on both sides of the Equator between the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. They appear in many forms. They take a violent and rapid form and create destruction in the areas they hit. As in temperate cyclones, uniformity is not found in these cyclones.
Characteristics of Cyclones:
1. Cyclones are the centers of low air pressure and in which the air pressure increases from the center towards the periphery.
2. Winds move from the periphery to the center.
3. Their shape is similar elliptical, circular, or ‘V’ oriented.
4. They affect the weather.
Meaning of anti – cyclone: The anti – cyclone is a sequence of circular isobars in which the air pressure is high at the center and it decreases gradually toward the outside.
Types of Anti – cyclones:
Anti – cyclones are divided mainly into the following categories:
1. Cold Anti – cyclone: These anti – cyclones form in polar regions primarily in arctic regions. These move forward in the east and south – east direction. They are smaller in size than warm anti – cyclones:
2. Warm Anti – cyclone: These anticyclones are produced in the belt of temperate high air pressure. In this belt, there is divergence of winds. Their size is huge. These are less active.
3. Blocking Anti – cyclone: This is a new type of anti – cyclone. These cyclones originate due to obstruction of wind circulation in the upper part of the troposphere. Among these, the air system and weather characteristics are similar to warm anti – cyclones. They are smaller and slower in speed.
Characteristics of anti – cyclones:
1. There is high air pressure in the center of every anti – cyclone, which decreases towards the periphery.
2. Winds blow in the clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere, and in the southern hemisphere, in the anti – clockwise direction.
3. Size is larger than cyclones. Their size is often spherical.
4. The weather becomes clear, the sky becomes clean and the wind becomes hot due to the arrival of anti – cyclones.
5. These occur more in sub – tropical high pressure areas.
