Anticyclones

Abstract

PROF. HOBBS in NATURE for July 22 gives some experimental reasons for contending that over large ice-covered areas, such as exist in Greenland and the Antarctic continent, the cooled lower layer of air moves outwards in all directions from the centre of the ice-covered area. Under the influenœ of the earth's rotation the air thus set in motion is regarded as circulating as in normal anticyclones, and Prof. Hobbs on that account speaks of such areas as being anticyclonic. He remarks: “The centrifugal nature of this motion tends to produce a vacuum above the central area of the ice mass, and the air must be drawn down from the upper layers of the atmosphere in order to supply the void. It is here that is located the ‘eye’ of the anticyclone.” He thus postulates an anticyclone with a low-pressure centre.