The atmosphere of the earth is being moved by the energy of the sun. The atmosphere heated at the equator is then cooled at the poles, forming a kind of thermal convection. Looking at satellite pictures, the clouds around the equator do seem to be moving in a convection-like fashion. However, the cloud movement at mid-latitudes doesn't look like a convective current at all. The thermal convection we can see here seems to be quite different from that of a kettle or a bath. By looking at global movement of clouds, we can see a prominent east-west tendency in the wind, i.e. easterly winds at low latitudes, and westerly winds at middle latitudes