A review of the surface climate of the Southern Hemisphere and some comparisons with the Northern Hemisphere

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This review points out features in the annual curves of some climate elements on the Southern Hemisphere which differ from their counterpart on the Northern Hemisphere. Among the topics are the effect on the surface air temperature of the different proportions of land and water at corresponding latitudes, including the decreasing annual temperature range with increasing latitude in the temperature regions of the Southern Hemisphere which is found only in limited open-ocean areas on the Northern Hemisphere. The change of sea level mean pressure in middle and high south latitudes through the year is dominated by a semi-annual wave which changes phase near 60°S from equinoctial maxima in the north to solstitial maxima in the south. A dominant semi-annual wave in the wind and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is associated with the pressure wave. On the Northern Hemisphere the large land masses in middle and high latitudes impose an overwhelming mean annual wave on the circulation, although locally there are appreciable semi-annual components.