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Buys-Ballot Law, weather jet streams, and the relationship between Pressure and Wind.

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How are weather jet streams formed? What do they have to do with our weather forecasts? What do airport wind socks detect?

The connection between pressure, temperature and 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 is, in an ideal, frictionless situation.

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.

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The Current Jet Stream

When analyzing weather jet streams, we mark the middle of a core or "river" of high winds resulting from the Buys Ballot 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.

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Search this site for more information now. For further details, read about upper air analysis Go back from Weather Jet Streams to the Forecast Map Weather web page or visit the Stuff in the Air homepage.

Search this site for more information now.