Buys-Ballot Law, weather jet streams, and the relationship between Pressure and Wind.
How are
weather jet streams
formed? What do they have to do with our forecasts?
What do airport wind socks detect?
The connection between
pressure,
temperature and windy weather jet streams comes from the Buys-Ballot law, in two parts:
A) The more suddenly the air pressure changes as you move in any horizontal direction, the stronger the wind. Here is a little mathematical note: if the pressure gradient is directly proportional to the speed, we have a Geostrophic relation. That means an ideal, frictionless ratio.
The strength of this relationship depends on how far North you are. For geeks only - because of the change in the Coriolis parameter, which is proportional to the trigonometric sine of the latitude.
B) The wind in this case will blow from your left if you look horizontally in the direction of the greatest pressure decrease.
Meteorologists use a "Geostrophic Wind Scale", an analog forcast ruler that helps them do this math quickly.
When analyzing weather jet streams, we mark the middle of a core or "river" of high winds resulting from the BB law. Some jets are low in altitude and can be seen by erratic motion on aviation wind socks and other
wind instruments
that display wind speed and direction. By the way, the socks give people on the airfield a quick idea of what the wind conditions are like.
The jet stream flows we usually talk about are at an elevation of around 30,000 feet or more. The jet stream defines the speed and direction of nearby weather systems by pushing them along the jet's own flow direction.