Observe an animation of the Coriolis effect over Earth's surface

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, Smithsonian Institution, National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Global Change Research Project (GCRP), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Dimensional Media Associates (DMA), New York Film and Animation Company, Inc. (SGI) Silicon Graphics, Hughes STX Corporation, Exploring Earth

Find a Flash animation for the Coriolis Effect, the apparent deflection of a wind or current due to earth rotation. One animation shows a plane flying from Anchorage, Alaska toward Miami, Florida. In the second animation, a plane takes off from Tierra del Fuego toward Rio de Janeiro. In both cases, the pilots would miss their destination because the targets moved in respect to the original straight line path of the plane. For the northern hemisphere the plane would end up to the right of the target, to the left, for the southern hemisphere. The animation can be paused and rewound to stress important points.


This resource is referenced here:Keywords: coriolis effect, atmosphere