= William Ferrel
{c}
<William Ferrel> analysed atmospheric circulation on a rotating <Earth>. The <Ferrel cell> carries his name and describes the middle-latitude branch of the idealized meridional circulation.<Ferrel cell in the Glossary of Meteorology by American Meteorological Society>[Definition and historical attribution]{ref}
Its modern interpretation requires care: this mean circulation is thermally indirect and strongly affected by eddy transport. It is not simply a second thermally direct <Hadley cell>. The distinction links the historical three-cell picture to the conservation and transport arguments used in <geophysical fluid dynamics>.
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