Halley's Wind: Reappraising a Centuries Old Theory for the Trade Winds

Kristopher B. Karnauskas

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1801.00740

Halley's Wind: Reappraising a Centuries Old Theory for the Trade Winds

Kristopher B. Karnauskas

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The astronomical work of Edmond Halley (1656-1742) during the latter half of the Copernican Revolution contributed substantially to the scientific proof and widespread acceptance of heliocentrism. Perhaps the most well-known example is his prediction of the return of the comet named in his honor. Halley is also known for offering an incorrect account of Earth's atmospheric general circulation in 1686, specifically the cause of the easterly trade winds in the tropics. In light of updated data and models, the notion of the 'wrongness' of Halley's proposed explanation is reconsidered when cast within the milieu of the prevailing cosmological model. The key ingredient to Halley's mechanism, underappreciated at the time by Halley and his contemporaries, is the thermal inertia of the climate system. It has been suggested by some authors that Halley's ideas on atmospheric circulation were the first to "go beyond the Ptolemaic view of climate." Ironically, Halley's explanation was essentially correct, but only in a Ptolemaic (geocentric) universe.

Explore related subjects

physics.hist-ph physics.ao-ph

Keep this discovery

BibTeX RIS

Kristopher B. Karnauskas. 2018-01-02. Halley's Wind: Reappraising a Centuries Old Theory for the Trade Winds. https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.00740

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Scientific Promise

Scientists constantly face decisions about what lines of research to pursue. This Element introduces the philosophical debate about scientific pursuitworthiness. It explains how it can be rational to pursue a theory even if the theory is less well supported than its rivals, and it discusses existing philosophical frameworks for guiding pursuit decisions. The Element also develops a new perspective. Existing accounts focus predominantly on theories, while experiments are largely neglected. This is an important shortcoming. Theoretical promise depends on experimental promise, and experimental promise raises questions of its own. Drawing on the epistemology of experimentation, the Element advances an account of experimental pursuitworthiness. It is argued that such pursuitworthiness depends on experimental virtues like a clear signal and simplicity of design. Moreover, the kinds of uncertainty that constrain the assessment of scientific pursuits are examined. Finally, the Element highlights open questions in the philosophy of scientific pursuitworthiness.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2026

Is Black Hole Evaporation Prediction Friendly?

Manchak and Weatherall (2018) formulate the black hole information paradox as a failure of predictability in black hole evaporation spacetimes, diagnosed by non-global hyperbolicity. I offer a strategy for resolving this paradox. I argue that failures of predictability in black hole evaporation are not well diagnosed by non-global hyperbolicity. I then consider two weakenings of global hyperbolicity: prediction and retrodiction friendliness, the failure of which could ground a new paradox. However, deidealized black hole evaporation models can be prediction and retrodiction friendly. Therefore, the information paradox cannot be based upon failures of global hyperbolicity, nor either retrodiction or prediction unfriendliness.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2026

The Crab Nebula progenitor: recovering the 1054 AD supernova event as galactic Gamma-ray burst

In 1054 AD a daytime star appeared in the constellation of Taurus, for three weeks, and it was reported in various sources from Europe to China/Japan: it was one of the few documented galactic supernovae of the last two millenia. This paradigm has been established about sixty years ago, as the comprehension of the physics of supernovae progressed with enough observational data. The Gamma-ray bursts were discovered in the same period, but only in the past few years have their observations become daily and their distances have been fully understood as cosmological. After the explosion, the exponential decay of the luminosity in gamma-rays and X-rays has been followed with telescopes onboard dedicated satellites. Also the exponential decay of the afterglow's optical and radio frequencies have been observed with the largest optical and radio telescopes. Within the binary-driven hypernova framework, successful in explaining all the observed phases of the Gamma-ray bursts, the universal exponential decay can be extended to 1000 years after the burst, to account for the present values of Gamma and X-rays as well as optical and radio frequencies of the Crab Nebula. Both the daytime visibility of the burst, and the simultaneous radiation plagues appeared in Constantinople and Cairo is a strong evidence of the presence of Gamma-rays in the lower atmosphere, coming from the same source originating the Crab nebula. The association to the daytime visibility of that star and the following plague meets exactly the etymology of the word dis-aster, bad star.

physics.hist-ph↗