Does the atmsphere rotate along with the earth?

Question

or does it act the same way water inside a cup, would, when you rotate the cup?...

give me a good reazon... this aint my homework, i totally randomly came up with this... as i looked at the sky.

think about it. we all know that wind is what mainly drives clowds around... however. Imagine there is not wind...

would the movement of the clowds be due to the rotation of the earth while the clowds stay in a single spot?...

any ideas?...

Answer 1

Yes it does. However, because the earth is spinning, that means that the reference frame is accelerating. Like any object in an accelerating reference frame, the atmosphere experiences pseudo-forces.

The centrifugal force just reduces gravity a tiny bit, so you don't notice it in weather. The coriolis force, however, is very significant to atmospheric dynamics. It explains why storms and currents (but NOT TOILETS) go clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the south.

The coriolis force only acts on particles which already have velocity, though. The initial velocities come from temperature gradients which cause pressure differences, not from the rotation of the earth.

Good question.

Answer 2

Although the cloud's movement is mainly due to the wind, I guess you can say that it is because of the rotation of the Earth too. The thing is, the wind is also partly because of the rotation of the Earth - the Earth rotates fast, but the air around, which is not attached to it, rotate slower.

P/S:

From wikipedia: The two major driving factors of large scale global winds are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind)

Answer 3

Just like water, dust particles,sand etc air (atmosphere) is also a part of the earth. So naturally when earth rotates atmosphere too has to rotate. Each and every particle in the atmosphere is under gravity. Earths angular velocity is not that much high to throw out the air particle due to the centrifugal force thus generated.

Answer 4

Well, yes, it does. The angular momentum of the earth results in the trade winds and most of the weather patterns of our planet. Look up hadley cells.