Find Out Why Northern Hemisphere is Soggy

Most tropical rain falls in the Northern Hemisphere is because of ocean currents originating from the poles, thousands of miles away, shows a new study.

The Palmyra Atoll, at 6 degrees north, gets 175 inches of rain a year, while an equal distance on the opposite side of the equator gets only 45 inches.

Rainfall Patterns Could be Affected by Global Warming
New evidence that global warming could change future global rainfall patterns has been provided in a new NASA-led study.

Scientists long believed that this was a quirk of the Earth's geometry - that the ocean basins tilting diagonally while the planet spins pushed tropical rain bands north of the equator.

However, the findings explain a fundamental feature of the planet's climate, and show that icy waters affect seasonal rains that are crucial for growing crops in places like Africa's Sahel region and southern India.

In general, hotter places are wetter because hot air rises and moisture precipitates out.

Greenhouse Gases and Aerosols Have Similar Effects on Rainfall
A new study has revealed that the effect of greenhouse gases and aerosols on spatial patterns of rainfall change are similar, regardless of their distinct properties.

Corresponding author Dargan Frierson, a University of Washington associate professor of atmospheric sciences, said that it rains more in the Northern Hemisphere because it's warmer.

Frierson and his co-authors first used detailed measurements from NASA's Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System, or CERES, satellites to show that sunlight actually provides more heat to the Southern Hemisphere - and so, by atmospheric radiation alone, the Southern Hemisphere should be the soggier one.

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Arctic Facing More Rapid Temperature Rise Than Other Places
In a new research, scientists have determined that temperature change in the Arctic is happening at a greater rate than other places in the Northern Hemisphere.

After using other observations to calculate the ocean heat transport, the authors next used computer models to show the key role of the huge conveyor-belt current that sinks near Greenland, travels along the ocean bottom to Antarctica, and then rises and flows north along the surface. Eliminating this current flips the tropical rain bands to the south.

The reason is that as the water moves north over many decades it gradually heats up, carrying some 400 trillion watts of power across the equator.