Question: What is the point wind?
Asked by sfyfe to Alexandra, Dean, Jess, Luisa, Sian on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
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Sian
commented on 22 Jun 2010: Firstly wind is an aspect of our weather and climate and therefore it doesn’t have a point in the same sense as something that has evolved may do; instead it is a by-product of how the Earth has come to be. So let me try and explain.
Wind is the large scale flowing of various gases across our planet and are classified by their ‘size’, speed, where they occur and the effects that they have. Local breezes are generated by heating of land surfaces and last a few hours and global winds result from the difference in absorption of solar energy between the climate zones on Earth.
The winds circulate based on the temperature differential between the two poles and the equator and due to the way that the Earth spins (Coriolis effect). So in the tropics, thermal low circulations over terrain and high plateaus can drive monsoon circulations and in coastal areas the sea breeze/land breeze cycle can define local winds.
Wind also causes ocean swells and surf.
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sfyfe
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I am not sure if I understand this question? Could you rephrase it please?
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Unfortunately physics doesn’t care about points, just causes and effects. Hot air is light and wants to float upwards, cold air wants to sink down. A complicated series of hot and cold spots on the earth (and in the atmosphere), and the actual pull the earth puts on the air as it spins means that you get some complicated air movement going on, slipstreams and so on.
It just so happens for the UK the wind has a very clear point. There’s a jet stream (like a constant flow of wind) in the ocean that pushes warm air into England and keeps us warmer than we’d be if we just relied on our position on the earth.
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Point wind? I have no idea.
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I don’t get this question …
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