Hadley cell One of the most fundamental divisions of the global wind circulation, comprising the net ascent of air over the lowest latitudes caused by convection, the compensatory downward motion in the subtropical anticyclone belt, and the resulting trade winds which blow towards the meteorological equator (intertropical convergence). It is named after the English meteorologist George Hadley (1685–1768), who in 1735, seeking to account for the trade winds, proposed a single, large-scale convective cell representing a thermally driven, low-latitude atmospheric circulation.

Hadley cell One of the most fundamental divisions of the global wind circulation, comprising the net ascent of air over the lowest latitudes due to convection, the compensatory downward motion in the subtropical anticyclone belt, and the resulting trade winds which blow toward the meteorological equator (intertropical convergence). It is named after G. Hadley, who in 1735, seeking to account for the trade winds, proposed a single, large-scale convective cell representing a thermally driven, low-latitude atmospheric circulation.