Coriolis effect
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Hurricane Andrew hurtles northwest over the Florida coastline in August 1992, its spiral shape evident in this infrared satellite photo. Like water draining through an outlet, hurricanes spin clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern – a manifestation of the Coriolis effect.
Effect of the Earth's rotation on the atmosphere, oceans, and theoretically all objects moving over the Earth's surface. In the northern hemisphere it causes moving objects and currents to be deflected to the right; in the southern hemisphere it causes deflection to the left. The effect is named after its discoverer, French mathematician Gaspard de Coriolis (1792–1843).
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