northerly vs current of air

northerly and current of air both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
northerly	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
current of air	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, current of air is a hypernym of northerly; that is, current of air is a word with a broader meaning than northerly:

northerly: a wind that blows from the north
current of air: air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure

Other hypernyms of northerly include air current, wind.

northerly (noun)	current of air (noun)
a wind that blows from the north	air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure

northerly (adjective)	current of air (adjective)
coming from the north; used especially of wind
oriented toward the north

northerly (adverb)	current of air (adverb)
in a northern direction