Tropic desert

In the tropics at 23.5 °, there are tropic deserts like the Sahara and Kalahari, because the high pressure areas that often occur there dissolve the clouds and therefore there can be no precipitation.

The high pressure areas come about through the Passatin version . Due to the strong solar radiation over a large angle (maximum 90 °), the earth is particularly heated in the equatorial region . A lot of water also evaporates. Since there is an inversion layer in the tropopause , the air masses cannot rise any further. They are diverted to the north and south. It starts to rain due to the condensation of the water vapor. In the tropic, the cooled air, which no longer contains moisture, begins to sink. Descending air masses always cause the clouds to dissolve. Near the ground, the air flows back into the equatorial region. The Coriolis deflection creates the trade winds .

Tropic deserts are:

• at the northern tropic: Sahara in North Africa, Rub al-Chali and Nefud on the Arabian Peninsula.
• at the Tropic of Capricorn: Kalahari in the south of Africa, Great sandy desert in Western Australia.

literature

• Wolf Dieter Blümel: Deserts: Origin - Characteristics - Habitat . UTB / Ulmer, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-8252-3882-7 .

Web links

• Patricia Mevissen: Tropic deserts and their formation