Intertropical Convergence Zone

The Intertropical Convergence Zone is a near-equatorial belt where Northern and Southern Hemisphere trade winds meet, forcing warm, moist air upward and producing clouds and frequent rain.

Trade winds: Persistent tropical winds that blow toward the equator from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. Their opposing flows meet within the convergence zone.
African monsoon: Seasonal wind and rainfall systems that bring wet-season precipitation to parts of Africa. North–south migration of the convergence zone structures much of tropical African rainfall.
George Hadley: An English lawyer and amateur meteorologist who proposed a circulation linking tropical heating to trade winds in 1735. His circulation model helped explain the winds that converge in the tropics.
Tropical rainfall: Precipitation occurring in the warm, low-latitude regions of Earth. The zone is one of the planet’s most extensive and persistent sources of tropical rain.
Atmospheric convection: Vertical movement in the atmosphere driven by differences in temperature and density. Solar heating makes moist air rise where surface winds converge.
South Asian monsoon: The seasonal circulation that brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall during the summer monsoon. The zone’s northward shift is part of the large-scale summer rain pattern.
Hadley circulation: A global-scale tropical overturning circulation with rising air near the equator and descending air in the subtropics. The convergence zone is the principal ascending region of this broader circulation.
Atmospheric rivers: Long, narrow corridors that transport large amounts of water vapor through the atmosphere. Moisture exported from tropical convergence can feed distant precipitation systems.
Hadley cell: A tropical atmospheric circulation in which air rises near the equator, flows poleward aloft, and descends in the subtropics. The convergence zone marks the rising branch of this circulation.
Sahel drought: A prolonged deficit of rainfall in the semiarid region south of the Sahara. Rainfall failures can follow when the convergence zone remains unusually far south.

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