The Wonders Of Wind By: Hailey Miles, Brandon Wunsch, Sarah Morrissette, and Edward Flanagan

Key Terms WindCoriolis Effect AnemometerLatitude Wind-Chill FactorJet Streams Local WindSea Breeze Land BreezeMonsoon Global winds

Wind is caused by differences in air pressure. Wind can be described by its direction and speed. Wind speed is measured by an anemometer. An anemometer is a device that has 4 cups mounted on an axle. Wind spins the cups and a speedometer records the wind speed. DID YOU KNOW: A wind coming from the west would blow east.

Local Winds, or winds that blow over short distances, are caused by unequal heating of the earth’s surface. This is similar to global winds. Those are also caused by unequal heating, but the difference is that global winds blow over long distances.

Monsoons happen in large regions, such as South Asia. This is because land breezes take place during the winter and sea breezes take place during the summer. A land breeze is the flow of air from land to a body of water. A sea breeze is the flow of air from a body of water to land.

Have you ever thrown a football and it landed slightly off target? This is partially because of the Coriolis Effect. The Coriolis Effect is the way Earth’s rotation makes winds curve to the side. In the northern hemisphere, winds curve to the right and in the southern hemisphere, they curve to the left.

The Coriolis Effect and other factors come together to form a pattern of wind belts and calm areas around the world. The three major wind belts are the Trade Winds, the Prevailing Westerlies, and the Polar Easterlies. Let’s see a close up of this diagram!!

As you could see on that diagram, North East trade winds blow from NE to SW. South East trade winds blow form SE to NW. The westerlies in the northern hemisphere blow from SW to NE and in the southern hemisphere, they blow from NW to SE. As for the polar easterlies, they blow from NE to SW in the north pole and SE to NW in the south pole.

Near the equator, the winds are weak because of a horizontal motion. Regions closest to the equator have little or no wind. These are called doldrums. The altitudes 30 degrees north and southof the equator are referred to as horse latitudes. How did they get their name? Hundreds of years ago, sailors ran out of food and water for their horses aboard the boat. They had to throw their horses over board around these altitudes.

Jet streams are bands of wind moving very fast. They go mph! They can be found ten kilometers above earth’s surface, moving from west to east. San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA are almost exactly south of each other, but San Francisco is still just a little west of Seattle. If a pilot was flying from Seattle to San Francisco, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to fly straight there. Jet streams could blow the plane off track because jet streams blow from west to east and the plane might be fighting against the strong wind.

Glossary Wind: horizontal movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure Anemometer: and instrument used to measure wind speed Wind-Chill Factor: increased cooling caused by the land Local Winds: winds that blow over short distances Sea Breeze: the flow of air from a body of water to land Land breeze: the flow of air from land to a body of water Monsoon: sea and land breezes over a large region that changes directions with seasons Global Winds: winds that blow over long distances Coriolis Effect: the way the earth’s rotation makes winds in the northern hemisphere curve right and winds in the southern hemisphere curve left Latitude: the distance north and south from the equator measure in degrees Jet streams: bands of high speed winds about 10km above earths surface !

WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS PRESENTATION!!! Eddie :] Sarah :] Hailey:] Brandon :]