Lecture notes:

Hadley circulation:
One of the earliest models proposed to describe the general circulation was suggested
by Hadley. He envisioned one large meridional (north-south) cell with rising motions
near the tropics and descending motion near the poles which is sketched schematically
in the following diagram.

The single large meridional cell is embedded with zonal (east-west) flow such as
Westerlies (from west) and Easterlies (from east) which is shown in the figure as W & E
respectively. It can be proved mathematically that such a cell which extends all the way
to pole cannot exist.
Consider a ring of air encircling the globe as shown in the figure below. Note that this
zonal flow (which is westerly) is embedded within the poleward directed meridional cell.
It is assumed that this ring of air is at a certain height where the frictional force is
negligible. Therefore the absolute angular momentum is conserved by the ring as it
moves around.

When dealing with a fluid such as air it is more convenient to talk about the angular
momentum per unit mass. The absolute angular momentum per unit mass is given by

The first term in the RHS represents the angular momentum due the planetary rotation
and second term refers to the angular momentum from the eastward moving wind with a
velocity, u relative to the Earth.
We can show that the eastward directed wind velocity at given latitude is,

(Detailed derivations are done in the class)

Substituting the values it can found that winds become unrealistically large far away
from the equator and winds become infinity over 90o latitude. Hence on the ground of
physical plausibility such an axi-symmetric circulation cannot extend all the way to the
pole as Hadley envisaged. Moreover, theoretical studies suggest that a symmetrical
Hadley cell circulation will break down outside the tropics. It can be shown that Hadley

cell cannot exist outside due to the development of baroclinic eddies. (Remember the
slides which I have shown in class: A donut shaped container with cold water and warm
water inside when rotated, develops baroclinic eddies, due to the baroclinic instability)
A simple extension of single Hadley cell circulation to a tricell meridional circulation was
proposed with an objective of explaining surface winds over the entire earth. The three
cells which make up the tricell structure are named as Hadley cell, Ferrel cell and Polar
cell.

The northward moving equatorial air at upper level cools at a rate of 20 C to 30 C per
day. This causes upper air current to cool by the time it reaches the subtropical
latitudes, which is around 300 latitude leading to sinking of the air at subtropics. The
sinking air spreads out horizontally at the ground. A part of the sinking air returns
equatorward to complete the Hadley circulation. It is evident that Hadley circulation is
restricted to the low-latitude tropical region only.

The Polar Regions are characterized by the net deficit of the radiant energy and hence
near polar region there is a net loss of heat by the atmosphere. Therefore near the polar
region cold air subsides and spreads towards the lower latitude giving rise to surface
easterlies. This air rises up near sub-polar low which is located around 600 latitudes.
This circulation pattern is called polar cell. The tricell model is completed by the
presence of Ferrel cell found in the mid-latitude region. Ferrels cell is driven by
Barolcinic waves.
Reference:
[1] Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate dynamics: An introductory survey by John Marshall
& Alan Plumb
[2] Basics of Atmospheric Science by A. Chandrasekar
[3] Atmospheric Science: An introductory survey by Wallace & Hobbs