What happens to the air where the trade winds meet near the equator?

It is heated, rises as an area of low pressure, and cools so that its water vapour condenses to give towering cloud and heavy rainfall.

What are the trade winds?

Steady surface winds blowing from the subtropical high pressure back towards the equator, from the north-east in the northern hemisphere and the south-east in the southern.

Why do surface winds curve instead of blowing straight towards the equator?

The Coriolis effect, caused by the spin of the Earth, deflects moving air to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern.

Edexcel GCSE Geography A 1GA0

Changing Cities

Topic overview Global urbanisation trends and rates The UK’s urban population and why urbanisation varies by region The chosen UK city: site, situation, connectivity and structure Urbanisation, suburbanisation and migration in the chosen UK city Population change and deindustrialisation in the chosen UK city Inequality and changes in retailing in the chosen UK city Making the chosen UK city more sustainable The chosen developing or emerging city: site, situation and structure Population growth and migration in the chosen developing or emerging city Inequality and quality of life in the chosen developing or emerging city Rapid urbanisation: challenges, and bottom-up and top-down responses Government policy and quality of life in the chosen city

Coastal Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option

Topic overview Coastal processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition Geology, wave type and UK weather at the coast Coastal landforms of erosion and deposition Coastal recession, flooding and coastal defences A named distinctive coastal landscape in the UK

Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management

Topic overview The world’s large-scale ecosystems and what controls their distribution The biosphere as a resource, and its commercial exploitation UK terrestrial and marine ecosystems Tropical rainforest characteristics and the nutrient cycle Rainforest biodiversity and plant and animal adaptations Rainforest goods and services, and the causes of deforestation Sustainable management of a named rainforest Deciduous woodland characteristics and the nutrient cycle Woodland biodiversity and plant and animal adaptations Woodland goods and services, and the causes of deforestation Sustainable management of a named deciduous woodland

Energy Resource ManagementResource option

Topic overview Renewable and non-renewable energy resources compared The UK’s energy mix and why energy mixes vary Rising energy demand and the development of non-renewables Developing renewables, and fracking Stakeholder attitudes to energy Sustainable management of energy resources

Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork

Topic overview River fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data Coastal fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data Urban fieldwork: enquiry questions and methods Urban fieldwork: secondary data sources Rural fieldwork: enquiry questions and methods Rural fieldwork: secondary data sources The enquiry process: asking questions and choosing methods The enquiry process: presenting, analysing and concluding The enquiry process: evaluating fieldwork

Geographical Investigations − UK Challenges

Topic overview The UK’s resource consumption and sustainability challenge The UK’s settlement, population and economic challenges The UK’s landscape challenges: National Parks and flood risk The UK’s climate change challenges

Geographical Skills

Topic overview Atlas and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch maps Describing the site, situation and shape of settlements Interpreting diagrams, sketches and photographs Using online census sources Hypotheses, sampling and risk assessment Collecting, recording and presenting data Writing about findings and building an argument

Glaciated Upland Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option

Topic overview Glacial processes and the processes at work on relict landscapes today Past climate and present UK weather in glaciated uplands Glacial landforms of erosion and deposition Crag and tail, and drumlins Human activity and development in glaciated uplands A named distinctive glaciated upland landscape in the UK

Global Development

Topic overview Defining and measuring development The global pattern of development and why it is uneven The consequences of uneven development for quality of life Strategies to reduce uneven development: aid, top-down and bottom-up The chosen country: location, context and internal unevenness Economic change, trade, aid and investment in the chosen country Population and social change in the chosen country Geopolitics and technology in the chosen country The impacts of rapid development and how they are managed

Mathematics and Statistics Skills

Topic overview Cartographic skills: contours, transects, scale and distance Using GIS and geo-spatial data Choosing, constructing and interpreting graphs and charts Numerical skills: number, scale, proportion and ratio Drawing conclusions from numerical data Statistical skills: averages, spread, percentages and correlation Spotting weaknesses in how data is presented

Resource Management

Topic overview What natural resources are, and how people exploit them How exploitation changes environments The distribution and consumption of food, energy and water

River Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option

Topic overview River processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition The long profile of a river and the effect of UK weather River landforms from source to mouth Land use, flood risk and river defences A named distinctive river landscape in the UK

The Changing Landscapes of the UK

Topic overview The UK’s rock types and geology How the UK’s upland and lowland landscapes were formed

Water Resource ManagementResource option

Topic overview The global distribution of fresh water, and water surplus and deficit Changing water supply and demand How water use differs between countries Water supply problems in the UK and in developing countries Stakeholder attitudes to water, and desalination Sustainable management of water resources

Weather Hazards and Climate Change

Topic overview Global atmospheric circulation and the transfer of heat Natural climate change and the evidence for it The enhanced greenhouse effect and the effects of climate change The climate of the UK and how it varies How tropical cyclones form, and where they occur Why tropical cyclones are hazardous, and their impacts Responses to tropical cyclones The causes of drought and why some places are more vulnerable The impacts of drought and responses to it

Weather Hazards and Climate Change

Global atmospheric circulation and the transfer of heat

3 things to know
Paper 1

Overview

Why the equator receives more solar energy, the Hadley, Ferrel and Polar cells, low pressure near the equator and at 60° and high pressure at 30°, the trade winds and the Coriolis effect, and how circulation cells and ocean currents move heat.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Why does each square metre of the equator receive more solar energy than each square metre near the poles?

Key term

Name the three circulation cells found between the equator and the pole in each hemisphere.

Key term

What weather is found in the belt of high pressure at about 30° north and south?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
Why does each square metre of the equator receive more solar energy than each square metre near the poles?
Model answer
Sunlight strikes the equator almost overhead so its energy is concentrated on a small area, while near the poles it arrives at a low angle and is spread thinly over a wider area.
2
Name the three circulation cells found between the equator and the pole in each hemisphere.
Model answer
The Hadley cell, the Ferrel cell and the Polar cell.
3
What happens to the air where the trade winds meet near the equator?
Model answer
It is heated, rises as an area of low pressure, and cools so that its water vapour condenses to give towering cloud and heavy rainfall.
4
What weather is found in the belt of high pressure at about 30° north and south?
Model answer
Air sinks and warms there, so cloud cannot form and the skies stay clear and almost rainless, which is why most hot deserts lie at those latitudes.
5
What are the trade winds?
Model answer
Steady surface winds blowing from the subtropical high pressure back towards the equator, from the north-east in the northern hemisphere and the south-east in the southern.
6
Why do surface winds curve instead of blowing straight towards the equator?
Model answer
The Coriolis effect, caused by the spin of the Earth, deflects moving air to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern.

See the rest and revise

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book

2Open book

3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Changing Cities

Coastal Landscapes and Processes

Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management

Energy Resource Management

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Once every years.

tenfivetwo

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

ALess reliable rainfall slows both growth and decay.

BNutrients sit unused in litter.

CViolent storms wash more of them away in run-off.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Label means a word that only names a feature.

TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Weather Hazards and Climate Change, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Start revising, £5 a month See how the method works

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.