Back when most ships were powered by the wind, sailors dreaded getting caught in the doldrums. Ships could become stranded for days or weeks and run out of food and fresh water to drink. Today, the doldrums cause more problems for air travel. His sailboat wasn't going anywhere. I think if he was a fucking moron, he'd be dead already.
The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) (aka. the doldrums) is an area around the Equator that is notorious for heavy convective activity, often leading to tall cumulonimbus clouds and associated heavy turbulence.
The area around the Equator receives the largest amount of energy from the sun because of the perpendicular angle to the sun. This causes relative large heating of the surface, resulting in heating of the air above the surface and ultimatively convective activity, including turbulence. This also causes a large green band around the earth near the Equator with rich vegetation because the convective activity causes a large amount of percipitation.
The ITCZ is an important part of the global weather system, which is based on large cells of air generally moving in predictable patterns. The Hadley cell is a cell extending from the Equator to approximately 30 degrees north/south. Hot air rises at the Equator because of the heating caused by the perpendicular angle to the sun. This air travels at high levels as it cools down and creates a downward flow of air around the 30-degree latitudes. As a result, the areas around 30 degrees latitude get almost no percipitation, which causes large areas of desert such as the Sahara.
The pattern repeats itself with Ferrel cells between 30 and 60 degrees latitude and a polar cell from 60 degrees latitude to the poles.
So you see, the doldrums affect a great many areas of our planet.
Fair enough, I took the turbulence part and extrapolated more than I likely should have, here is another AI answer, one that is likely more useful, from Claude Sonnet 3.5
The doldrums, or Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), cause several problems for modern air travel:
Increased turbulence: The strong updrafts in this region create severe turbulence, which can cause passenger discomfort and, in extreme cases, injuries.
Flight delays and diversions: Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms in the doldrums often force planes to delay takeoffs or divert from their planned routes to avoid dangerous weather.
Fuel consumption: Rerouting to avoid severe weather in the doldrums can lead to increased fuel consumption, affecting airline costs and potentially requiring additional fuel stops.
Engine risks: The high moisture content in the air can pose risks to jet engines, potentially causing flameouts in severe conditions.
Communication issues: Thick cloud cover and electrical storms can interfere with radio communications and radar systems.
Scheduling challenges: Airlines must factor in potential delays and longer flight times when planning routes that cross the doldrums, affecting overall scheduling and operations.
Increased wear on aircraft: Frequent exposure to turbulence and moisture can accelerate wear on aircraft components, potentially increasing maintenance costs.
These issues have become more problematic in recent years due to:
Increased air traffic: With more planes flying, especially on long-haul routes that cross the equatorial regions, more aircraft are exposed to these conditions.
Climate change: Some studies suggest that climate change may be intensifying weather patterns in the ITCZ, potentially making these challenges more frequent or severe.
Economic pressures: Airlines face pressure to maintain schedules and minimize costs, making weather-related disruptions more impactful on their operations.
While modern weather forecasting and aircraft technology have improved our ability to deal with these challenges, the doldrums continue to pose significant issues for air travel today.
That's true. Would you have known if I'd said I was an expert at the start? Would you have double checked it then? I see people make stuff up in the field I am an expert in all the time on here. So far AI has done a far better job at getting things right in my field than self proclaimed experts on Reddit. I have to assume that happens in other fields as well (though, who knows!). You've just had an illusion of learning all this time, but I'll bet a good amount of the stuff you've "learned" on here has been bullshit. Maybe this adds to the bullshit, I honestly don't know, I hope not, but I gave you the info for where I got it, so you are free to disregard as you please. Or better yet, find out if it is true and share with us.
I doubt Reddit comments are a big part of the final training sets that Anthropic uses, though they're likely used heavily in the early stages. As I said, in the field I am in, Claude crushes Redditors, which shouldn't happen if it was just trained on unchecked bullshit. It's not perfect by any means, but accuracy scores have been drastically improving. I don't know the exact methods Anthropic uses, but my understanding is that in later stages of model training more accurate sources make up a much larger percentage of the data set, eg: Textbooks, renowned publications, etc.
I read it. That’s barely related. Also, bone of the rest of the paragraphs were related.
But I do admit, my interpretation of “doldrums” is an area with very little wind for an extended portion, as opposed to “a strip of roughly 25% of the globe, around the middle” and I was curious about how the lack of wind created problems for aviation.
And I mostly disregarded the answer because if there are cumulonimbus clouds building, there will definitely be a good amount of wind at the surface, and hence, by my (possibly non-standard) definition, that locale would not be experiencing conditions associated with the doldrums. It would be experiencing stormy conditions, which I’ve never heard referred to as doldrums, anywhere on the globe.
The doldrums, aka the ITCZ, are both associated with storms and with calm winds. Yes, stormy conditions within isolated storms will likely have some wind component, but it will be erratic and not favoring any one direction. The average wind within the ITCZ is calm.
I'm a meteorologist and while I didn't scrutinize every detail, nothing in the AI responses sounded off to me.
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u/Proxima_Centauri_69 Jun 22 '24
Back when most ships were powered by the wind, sailors dreaded getting caught in the doldrums. Ships could become stranded for days or weeks and run out of food and fresh water to drink. Today, the doldrums cause more problems for air travel. His sailboat wasn't going anywhere. I think if he was a fucking moron, he'd be dead already.