#1) Why does the air not move north or south? Answer: There is a consistent pattern to how air moves around our planet’s atmosphere. This pattern, called atmospheric circulation, is caused because the Sun heats the Earth more at the equator than at the poles. It's also affected by the spin of the Earth. But because Earth is spinning, the air that moves north and south from the equator also turns with the spin of the Earth. Air going north turns to the northwest. Air travelling south turns to the southwest. The power of Earth's spin to turn flowing air is known as the Coriolis Effect.
