Wind Belts

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The Earth is covered with bands of wind belts. Wind belts are areas where the wind acts in the same direction. The polar easterlies flow down from the poles. The Prevailing westerlies blow from west to east and were used by colonial powers to ship their trade from the new world back to Europe. The Horse latitudes are doldrums because these are areas on Earth where the wind flow is often disrupted  and long periods of calm exist. They received their name because often ships were trapped during these long periods of calm and ran low on supplies. After a while, ship captains were force to dump their horse cargo overboard and the horse would drown and bob up and down on the waves when the next ship passed by. The sailors called these areas of doldrums the Horse latitudes. The Northeast trade winds blow from east to west and were used by colonial powers to travel from Europe to the new world to trade. The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is another are of doldrums. The Southeast tradewinds, Prevailing westerlies and Horse latitudes were used in the same fashion as their northern hemisphere counterparts. The Polar easterlies of the southern hemisphere of course blow north which is opposite of its northern hemisphere counterpart.