A thermal loop is a movement of air driven by warm air rising at one end of the loop, and cool air descending at the other end, creating a constantly moving loop of air. Thermal loops also occur in liquids.
Thermal loops are size-independent; that is to say, they may occur in a space as small as a room or as large as a global
hemisphere
Hemisphere refers to:
* A half of a sphere
As half of the Earth
* A hemisphere of Earth
** Northern Hemisphere
** Southern Hemisphere
** Eastern Hemisphere
** Western Hemisphere
** Land and water hemispheres
* A half of the (geocentric) celesti ...
. The
Hadley cell
The Hadley cell, named after George Hadley, is a global-scale tropical atmospheric circulation that features air rising near the equator, flowing poleward at a height of 10 to 15 kilometers above the earth's surface, descending in the subtropics ...
is an example of a global-scale thermal loop.
Fluid dynamics
{{Ocean-stub