Jet streams are
relatively narrow bands of strong wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere
. The winds blow from west to east in jet streams but the flow often shifts to the north and south. Jet streams follow the boundaries between hot and cold air. … The earth’s rotation is responsible for the jet stream as well.
What are jet streams your answer?
Jet streams are
currents of air high above the Earth
. They move eastward at altitudes of about 8 to 15 kilometers (5 to 9 miles). They form where large temperature differences exist in the atmosphere. An air current is a flowing movement of air within a larger body of air.
Which statement is true of jet streams?
Answer: Option D is correct: “
The polar jet stream lies between the polar easterlies and trade winds
.” Explanation: The direction in which the polar jet stream travels is determined by the Rossby waves in the atmosphere, which are harmonic waves.
Why do jet streams flow from west to east?
The reason that they most often move from west to east is due to the jet stream. The jet stream is a narrow band of fast, flowing air currents located near the altitude of the tropopause that flow from west to east. … These winds shift west to east due to the
rotation of the earth
.
What are 2 facts about jet streams?
Jet streams travel in the tropopause—the
area between the troposphere and the stratosphere
—at heights of about 8 to 15 kilometers (5 to 9 miles). The strong air currents, which tend to look like wavy, striated rivers when seen on a jet stream map, form when cold air and hot air meet.
Why is it called the jet stream?
Where did the terminology jet stream come from? … Carl-Gustaf Rossby is considered the key meteorologist in the discovery of the jet stream, but in 1939 a German meteorologist named Seilkopf used the German word “strahlstromung,” which means jet stream, to describe
these strong winds
.
What causes the jet stream to shift?
Jet streams form when
warm air masses meet cold air masses in the atmosphere
. The Sun doesn’t heat the whole Earth evenly. … But dramatic temperature differences between the warm and cool air masses can cause jet streams to move at much higher speeds — 250 miles per hour or faster.
How is the jet stream measured?
Jet streams can be detected by
drawing isothachs (the lines connecting points of equal wind speed)
on a weather map . Jet streams form in the upper troposphere, between 6 and 9 mi (10 and 14 km) high, at breaks in the tropopause, where the tropopause changes height dramatically.
What affects the jet stream?
The factors that influence the flow of the jet stream are
the landmasses and the Coriolis effect
. Landmasses interrupt the flow of the jet stream through friction and temperature differences, whilst the spinning nature of the earth accentuates these changes.
Where are the two main hemispheric jet streams located?
Each hemisphere has two primary jet streams — a polar and a subtropical. The polar jet streams form
between the latitudes of 50 and 60 degrees north and south of the equator
, and the subtropical jet stream is closer to the equator and takes shape at latitudes of 20 to 30 degrees.
What happens if the jet stream stops?
Without a jet, then,
the whole pattern of global temperatures would be different
, with the air cooling much more gradually across the latitudes. One of the clearest features of Earth’s climate, the striking temperature difference between equator and poles, would be gone.
Where is the strongest turbulence in the jet stream found?
Jet Stream.
Although not all jet streams have CAT associated with them, there can be significant vertical and horizontal Low Level Wind Shear on the edges of the jet stream giving rise to sometimes severe clear air turbulence. Any CAT is strongest on
the cold side of the jet stream where the wind shear
is greatest.
How do jet streams influence the weather?
The jet stream
flows high overhead and causes changes in the wind and pressure at that level
. This affects things nearer the surface, such as areas of high and low pressure, and therefore helps shape the weather we see. Sometimes, like in a fast-moving river, the jet stream’s movement is very straight and smooth.
What are jet streams kids?
A jet stream is
a band of fast-moving wind that is high up in the atmosphere
. Jet streams form at the boundaries between hot and cold air masses and tend to be westerly, which means they blow from the west to the east.
What has the greatest effect on the movement of the jet stream?
Which has the greatest effect on the MOVEMENT of the jet stream? … The greater the ________difference between air masses, the
FASTER the WIND
blows in the jet stream.
Who discovered the jet stream?
German meteorologist Heinrich Seilkopf
(1895-1968) used a special German word, strahlstromung, literally meaning “jet streaming,” in a 1939 research paper that described high-speed winds in the atmosphere, and he is credited with coining the term jet stream.
