(Please correct me if I’m wrong!)
You got longitude and latitude backwards, but otherwise 👍
Comment on Does the southern hemisphere get colder farther from the pole? Why?
curlywurly@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m not an expert but I think it’s because of the shapes of the continents and oceans and their effect on ocean currents.
The Arctic Ocean is effectively a northern extension of the Atlantic, with relatively little water exchange with the Pacific. So, currents flow primarily north-south, allowing warm water to be exchanged.
By contrast, the Southern Ocean is not hemmed in by land, and so there’s nothing stopping currents flowing longitudinally rather than latitudinally - which is exactly what happens. Cold water is exchanged for other cold water, at least on the surface, keeping the ocean and surrounding areas cooler.
(Please correct me if I’m wrong!)
grue@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
My vaguely nonsense way of remembering this is “latitude” is one letter swap away from “altitude” which is how far up and down something is. And longitude lines are long because they go round and round without ever meeting at a point
grue@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The mnemonic I use is that longitude lines are all equally long, which means they must be the one that are meridians and thus go north-south.
In contrast, latitude lines are all different lengths, analogous to how being given latitude in the figurative sense affords you freedom of choice.
(I’m willing to bet there’s an Age of Exploration sailing idiom somewhere in that etymology, BTW – probably something about how straying north or south of your target course in order to catch the right wind is no big deal because you can just use your sextant to keep track of it, but straying farther east or west than you intend means you’re screwed because chronometers hadn’t been invented yet.)
curlywurly@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There’s also very little land stopping the wind around the Southern Ocean, so the cool temperatures in the Tierra del Fuego might not be your only issue!