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Most of the equatorial rainfall, necessary for agriculture in Africa and the Indian subcontinent, takes place in the northern hemisphere. This phenomenon was believed to be caused by the tilt of ocean basins due to rotation of the earth.
It has now come to light that it is dueÔÇêto an ocean current that transports heat from southern to northern hemisphere. As a principle, warmer regions get more rainÔÇêand the southern hemisphere, which gets more heat from the sun, should get more rain.
But this does not happen due to the oceanic current which sinks near Greenland, travels along the ocean surface to Antarctica where it rises and flows along the surface to north.
During this, it heats up and transfers the heat to the northern hemisphere.
Source: Nature Geoscience, October 20 (Online)
