<P> Henry Piddington published almost 40 papers dealing with tropical storms from Calcutta between 1836 and 1855 in The Journal of the Asiatic Society . He also coined the term cyclone, meaning the coil of a snake . In 1842, he published his landmark thesis, Laws of the Storms . </P> <P> There are a number of structural characteristics common to all cyclones . A cyclone is a low - pressure area . A cyclone's center (often known in a mature tropical cyclone as the eye), is the area of lowest atmospheric pressure in the region . Near the center, the pressure gradient force (from the pressure in the center of the cyclone compared to the pressure outside the cyclone) and the force from the Coriolis effect must be in an approximate balance, or the cyclone would collapse on itself as a result of the difference in pressure . </P> <P> Because of the Coriolis effect, the wind flow around a large cyclone is counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere . In the Northern Hemisphere, the fastest winds relative to the surface of the Earth therefore occur on the eastern side of a northward - moving cyclone and on the northern side of a westward - moving one; the opposite occurs in the Southern Hemisphere . In contrast to low pressure systems, the wind flow around high pressure systems are clockwise (anticyclonic) in the northern hemisphere, and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere . </P> <P> Cyclogenesis is the development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the atmosphere . Cyclogenesis is an umbrella term for several different processes that all result in the development of some sort of cyclone . It can occur at various scales, from the microscale to the synoptic scale . </P>

In the southern hemisphere what is the direction of surface wind movement about a tropical cyclone