South Pacific High
Weather phenomenon off the Peru and northern Chile coasts
The South Pacific High is a semi-permanent subtropical anticyclone located in the southeast Pacific Ocean. The area of high atmospheric pressure and the presence of the Humboldt Current in the underlying ocean make the west coast of Peru and northern Chile extremely arid. The Sechura and Atacama deserts, as the whole climate of Chile, are heavily influenced by this semi-permanent high-pressure area. This high-pressure system plays a major role in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and it is also a major source of trade winds across the equatorial Pacific.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “South Pacific High”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Vientos del oeste.jpg by Martín, Rodrigo Sebastian, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Clima de Chile.JPG by Dentren, Public domain
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