Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Cyclones

Abstract

WHILE the subject of cyclones is being discussed in NATURE, I should like to direct attention to a point which I have already treated in a paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January, 1916. It is there pointed out that though the core of a cyclone is colder than the core of an anticyclone or than the surrounding air, yet the air in the cyclone is lighter than that in the anticyclone. This decrease in density is due to the air being under a lower pressure. It is shown that the lower pressure in cyclones more than compensates for their lower temperature, so that though the air in cyclones is colder, yet it is lighter than the surrounding air, and tends to ascend in the troposphere as well as in the stratosphere.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

AITKEN, J. Cyclones. Nature 102, 425 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/102425b0

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/102425b0

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing