Which way the wind doesn't blow. Why do the winds blow? Why does wind arise? The meaning of wind in nature

Where does the wind blow from?

It is important for people to be able to determine the direction of the wind. After all, a change in the wind brings a change in the weather. For example, the north wind brings cooling to many areas of our country, the south brings warming, the wind from the sea carries moisture, and dry winds blow from arid areas.

The wind is called on the side of the horizon from which it blows. If the wind blew from the north-west, then they say that it is north-west, if from the south-west - south-west.

Knowing the sides of the horizon and being able to navigate the terrain, you can determine where the wind is blowing from. The direction of the wind can be determined by the waving flag, by the direction of the smoke coming from the chimneys... But this can be done more accurately using a weather vane.

A weather vane is a device whose needle rotates freely on a vertically mounted rod. The sharp end of the arrow is always directed against the wind. Below the arrow, eight rods are fixedly attached - indicators of the main and intermediate sides of the horizon.

The weather vane was invented several thousand years ago. In many cities it has become a custom to decorate spiers tall buildings weather vane.

Why does the wind blow?

Imagine that we are now not in a room, but in a forest clearing. You and I sit by the fire and watch how the fire engulfs the dry branches, how the sparks soar upward with a crash. Why do sparks fly up? Maybe something is pushing them? Just now?

Let's watch the fire. When the fire burns hot, without smoke, you can see hot air flowing above it, rushing upward. Here he is, carrying sparks to the sky.

Or maybe you saw how the air trembles over the asphalt? This happens because the sun heats up the asphalt, and the asphalt heats the air. Warm air is lighter than cold air, so it rises, but it seems that it is trembling.

The sun warms not only your yard, but also your village or city, fields and forests. Every summer day it becomes warmer and warmer. And the air above the ground becomes warmer and lighter. Warm air currents rise high into the sky.

And at the same time, somewhere on Earth there is cold weather. And the air there is colder, which means it’s heavier. Masses of cold air move to where it is warmer, warm air seems to make room for them. This is how the wind turns out.

What makes the wind fly from place to place, sometimes thousands of kilometers away? Sun! It warms the earth unevenly: somewhere it’s always warmer, somewhere it’s colder. And if the whole world had the same temperature, there would not be a breeze on Earth.

What is the benefit of the wind?

The wind flew over the city. I took the dust and soot with me - it became easier to breathe. He flew on - he cleared away the clouds and dried out the roads. He brought coolness to the hot earth. The sky was overcast with clouds, and it began to rain heavily - heavily. I gave the dry soil water and everything turned green.

The wind flew to the sea, blew, inflated the sails, and drove the boats. Previously, he also moved ships, because ships then were sailing. There is no wind - they cannot swim: people sit by the sea and wait for the weather. The wind still helps the ships. With a fair wind they sail faster.

The wind performs another invisible, but very important job. In order for fruits to grow in place of flowers, pollen must fly from one flower to another. Bees transfer this pollen to many flowers. But more often it is the wind that does it. The breeze blows and pollen flies from one flower to another.

And the wind also carries fruits and seeds. Have you seen how the fruits of birch, maple, and elm fly? The wind helps them move to new places where there is more light, warmth, and food for young plants.

What evil winds fly over the earth?

Lightning flashes, thunder rumbles. The wind, a tornado, rushes through the waves like a snake wriggles. Suddenly he rushed down from the shaggy cloud, extended his trunk, and spun the water into the sea like a screw. The cloud collided with the sea and swirled around like a column of water. With a roar he rushed on.

A tornado twists pillars of dust and sand on the ground, and pulls everything it encounters on the way into itself. And it stops circling, everything falls back to the ground.

The evil wind is a tornado, and sometimes it does funny things. Frogs fall from the sky. People are surprised. What's happened? And this tornado flew over the swamp - with mud and water, it threw frogs up to the clouds. Now they are falling along with the rain. And not only frogs, but also fish, oranges fall from the sky!

There are other terrible and evil winds, for example a blizzard, a dry wind, a hurricane. In winter, a snowstorm swirls with snow, sweeps roads, and knocks down trees. In the summer, a hot wind, as if escaping from a stove, rushes through the steppe. The grass, trees, earth - everything is scorching like fire.

Hurricanes are giant air vortices. They are usually accompanied by heavy rains, leading to flooding. Squalls occur during the warm season. They are accompanied by strong thunderstorms and downpours. Such phenomena are possible in any area. Often they even have their own names: Novorossiysk bora. All this causes great destruction and leads to casualties.

Various evil winds fly over the earth, they are called differently, but they all bring harm.

Moving in a certain direction. On other planets it represents a mass of gases characteristic of their surface. On Earth, wind moves predominantly horizontally. Classification, as a rule, is carried out in accordance with the speed, scale, types of forces that cause them, and places of distribution. Various flows are influenced by natural phenomena and the weather. Wind facilitates the transfer of dust, plant seeds, and facilitates the movement of flying animals. But how does directed air flow occur? Where does the wind blow from? What determines its duration and strength? And anyway, why do the winds blow? This and much more is discussed further in the article.

Classification

First of all, winds are characterized by strength, direction and duration. Gusts are considered to be strong and short-term movements (up to several seconds) of air currents. If a strong wind blows for an average duration (about a minute), it is called a squall. Longer air currents are named according to their strength. So, for example, a light wind blowing on the coast is a breeze. There is also a typhoon. The duration of the winds can also be different. Some last a few minutes, for example. The breeze, depending on the temperature difference on the relief surface during the day, can last up to several hours. Local and general circulation The atmosphere is made up of trade winds and monsoons. Both of these types fall into the category of "global" winds. Monsoons are caused by seasonal changes in temperature and last up to several months. Trade winds are constantly moving winds. They are caused by temperature differences at different latitudes.

How to explain to a child why the wind blows?

For children at an early age, this phenomenon is of particular interest. The child does not understand where the air flow is formed, which is why it is present in one place and not in another. It is enough to simply explain to your child that in winter, for example, a cold wind blows due to low temperatures. How does this process happen? It is known that the air flow is a mass of atmospheric gas molecules moving together in one direction. A small-volume air flow can whistle and rip off the hats of passers-by. But if the mass of gas molecules has a large volume and a width of several kilometers, then it can cover a fairly large distance. In enclosed spaces, air practically does not move. And you can even forget about its existence. But if you put your hand out of the window of a moving car, for example, you can feel the air flow, its strength and pressure with your skin. Where does the wind blow from? The movement of the flow is due to the difference in pressure in different parts of the atmosphere. Let's look at this process in more detail.

Atmospheric pressure difference

So why does the wind blow? For children, it is better to use a dam as an example. On one side the height of the water column is, for example, three meters, and on the other - six meters. When the floodgates open, water will flow into the area where there is less water. Roughly the same thing happens with air flows. IN different parts The atmosphere pressure is different. This is due to the difference in temperature. In warm air, molecules move faster. Particles tend to fly away from each other in different directions. Due to this, warm air is more discharged and weighs less. As a result, the pressure that is created in it decreases. If the temperature is lowered, the molecules form closer clusters. Air, accordingly, weighs more. This increases the pressure. Similar to water, air has the ability to flow from one zone to another. Thus, the flow moves from an area with high pressure to an area with low pressure. That's why the winds blow.

Movement of streams near bodies of water

Why does the wind blow from the sea? Let's look at an example. On a sunny day, the rays warm both the shore and the pond. But the water heats up much more slowly. This is due to the fact that the surface warm layers immediately begin to mix with the deeper, and therefore cold, layers. But the coast is heating up much faster. And the air above it is more rarefied, and the pressure, accordingly, is lower. Atmospheric currents rush from the reservoir to the shore - to a freer area. There they, heating up, rise upward, again freeing up space. Instead, a cool stream appears again. This is how air circulates. On the beach, vacationers can periodically feel a light cool breeze.

Meaning of winds

Having figured out why the winds blow, we should talk about the impact they have on life on Earth. The wind has great importance for human civilization. Vortex flows inspired people to create mythological works, expanded trade and cultural range, and influenced historical phenomena. Winds also acted as energy suppliers for various mechanisms and units. Due to the movement of air currents, they were able to overcome significant distances across oceans and seas, and Balloons- across the sky. For modern aircraft, winds are of great practical importance - they save fuel and increase air flow. But it should be said that air currents can also cause harm to humans. For example, due to gradient wind fluctuations, control over the control of the aircraft may be lost. In small bodies of water, fast air currents and the waves they cause can destroy buildings. In many cases, winds contribute to the growth of fires. In general, phenomena associated with the formation of air flows different ways impact on living nature.

Global effects

In many areas of the planet, air masses with a certain direction of movement predominate. In the region of the poles, as a rule, eastern winds predominate, and in temperate latitudes, westerly winds predominate. At the same time, in the tropics, air flows again take an eastern direction. At the boundaries between these zones - the subtropical ridge and the polar front - there are so-called calm areas. There are virtually no prevailing winds in these areas. Here the air movement is mainly vertical. This explains the appearance of zones of high humidity (near the polar front) and deserts (near the subtropical ridge).

Tropics

In this part of the planet, trade winds blow in a westerly direction, approaching the equator. Due to the constant movement of these air currents, the atmospheric masses on Earth are mixed. This can occur on a significant scale. For example, trade winds moving over the Atlantic Ocean carry dust from African desert areas to the West Indies and some areas of North America.

Local effects of air mass formation

When figuring out why the winds blow, we should also talk about the influence of the presence of certain geographical objects. One of the local effects of the formation of air masses is the temperature difference between not too distant areas. It can be caused by different light absorption coefficients or different heat capacity of the surface. The latter effect is strongest between and land. The result is a breeze. Another local factor of importance is the presence of mountain systems.

Mountain influence

These systems may represent some kind of barrier to the movement of air flows. In addition, mountains themselves in many cases cause wind formation. The air above the hills warms up more than the atmospheric masses above the lowlands at the same altitude. This contributes to the formation of zones low blood pressure over mountain ranges and wind formation. This effect often provokes the appearance of mountain-valley atmospheric moving masses. Such winds prevail in areas with rough terrain.

An increase in friction near the valley surface leads to a deflection of the parallel-directed air flow to the height of nearby mountains. This contributes to the formation of a high-altitude jet current. The speed of this flow can exceed the strength of the surrounding wind by up to 45%. As mentioned above, mountains can act as an obstacle. When going around the circuit, the flow changes its direction and strength. Changes in mountain ranges have a significant impact on wind movement. For example, if there is a pass in the mountain range that the atmospheric mass overcomes, then the flow passes through it with a noticeable increase in speed. In this case, the Bernoulli effect works. It should be noted that even minor changes in height cause fluctuations. Due to a significant gradient in air speed, the flow becomes turbulent and continues to remain so even behind a mountain on a plain at a certain distance. Such effects are of particular importance in some cases. For example, they are important for aircraft taking off and landing at mountain airfields.

The wind is everywhere, and in different parts of the world it is called differently, depending on its properties: wolf-eater, goldenrod, mango-fango, goat's beard, cross-eyed Bob, cat's paw, courier... and thousands of other names.

It turns out that the wind has its own personal day, a holiday celebrated on June 15th. This was initiated by two organizations - the Wind Energy Council and the European Wind Energy Association. Why did they do this? In order to draw everyone's attention to the energy potential that wind has. This holiday began back in 2007 in Europe; it became international 2 years later.

Wind occurs due to uneven distribution atmospheric pressure and is always directed from the high pressure zone to the zone low pressure.

Interesting facts about wind

The strongest winds on our planet blow at an altitude of 8 to 50 km above the earth. Most often they are directed from west to east and sometimes reach speeds of 450 km/h.

And long-term observations of the direction and strength of the wind are usually depicted in the form of a graph called a “wind rose.”

The wind can be not only horizontal, but also vertical, the strength of which is hundreds of times less, so we do not notice it.

The origin of the word “ensign” is curious. This military rank appeared in the Russian army by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1649: this was the name of the standard bearers (in Church Slavonic, “ensign” is a banner), appointed from among the most courageous warriors. Until the 18th century in Russia, the word “prapor” was also used to refer to a weather vane, a device for determining the direction of the wind.

The Mongol Khan Kublai Khan, already the Emperor of the Yuan State, twice planned invasions of Japan, and both times strong typhoons became the decisive factor in repelling the attacks. The Japanese saw this as help from above and called them “kamikaze,” which means “divine wind.” And in the Second world war this term came to refer to suicide pilots.

Föhn is a warm and dry wind blowing from the mountains to the valleys. Hair drying devices have been produced in Germany under the Fön brand since the beginning of the 20th century. The word has become a common noun not only in German, but also in Russian, changing into “fen”.

For a certain combination of parameters environment A rare meteorological phenomenon occurs when the wind rolls snow into rolls. The accumulation of layers of snow occurs like when building a snowman, only the rolls are usually cylindrical in shape and are often hollow inside. For a snow roll to begin to form, the ground must be covered with a crust of ice, the snow must be wet and loose, and the wind speed must be high enough to lift the snow thickness.

The driest place on Earth is not the Sahara or any other known desert, but an area in Antarctica called the Dry Valleys. These valleys are almost completely free of ice and snow, as moisture evaporates under the influence of powerful winds reaching speeds of 320 km/h. In some areas of this area there has been no rain for two million years.

As you know, different nations have different traditions in clothing. The natives of Tierra del Fuego wear clothing that does not protect their entire body, but only covers about half of it. The fact is that the aborigines wear their clothes on the side from which the wind blows.

The wind at the surface of the earth is measured with a weather vane, and at heights - with a special rubber ball filled with hydrogen and called a pilot ball.

“Solar wind” is the movement of solar plasma into interplanetary space. The solar wind blows at a speed of 300 to 600 km/sec. It is the cause of geomagnetic storms.

The strongest winds in solar system blow on the planet Neptune. This planet is famous for its storms and fast winds, which always blow only in a westerly direction, against the rotation of the planet. Maximum speed, which was measured by scientists on Neptune - 2,200 km/h.

An underwater wind sometimes blows in the Volga region! This southeast wind gets its name from the fact that it is often accompanied by mirages and it is believed that when it blows, one cannot trust the eyes. Therefore, such wind is called underwater (from the word to let down).

A. Saprygina, head of M-2 Kinel-Cherkassy.

In fact, which way does the wind blow? Can you answer this question? Today - one way, tomorrow - the other! And yet the answer is possible, and not even that difficult. To begin with, all you have to do is... light the stove! As soon as the fire flares up, bring the feather clutched in your fingers to the firebox and release it. The feather seems to fly into the fire by itself! What took him there?

Warm air is lighter than cold air and therefore always tends upward. Having heated up in the stove, it flies down the chimney along with the smoke. And in place of the warm air that has flown away from the room, cold air rushes into the stove. It was he who took away the feather.

The same thing happens in nature. The only stove there is the sun, which sends its hot rays to the earth. Heat from the heated soil is transferred to the air. Entire rivers of air float straight up from the earth. But the earth is heating unevenly. It is more difficult to warm up a forest or water than, say, a field. And now, in place of the warm air rising from the field, colder air rushes from the forest. That's why on a hot summer day there is a cool breeze coming from the forest!

Well, why does the wind still blow? Because warm air weighs less than cold air. It puts less pressure on the ground. And in places nearby, where it is colder, the pressure is stronger, and it forces the cold air to take the vacated space. The place where the weight of the air cargo has decreased is called a low pressure area. Winds are blowing here from all sides. But not directly to the center, but obliquely, because our planet rotates, and rotation deflects the direction of the wind. As a result, a ring of winds appears around the low pressure area. It reaches hundreds and even thousands of kilometers in diameter. This phenomenon is called a cyclone. The cyclone moves, making 30 or more kilometers per day. At its border the sky becomes cloudy, it rains, and in the middle it is warm.

But, having risen to a great height, masses of warm air, of course, do not remain in the same place. They quickly fly to where the cold, heavier air has descended. Moving at high altitudes, warm air flows cool and become heavier. Arriving at the vacated place, they also begin to descend... This is how an area of ​​high pressure arises. The accumulated masses of cold air put more pressure on the surface of the earth than in surrounding places. Of course, the winds arise again. They should blow in all directions from the middle of the high pressure area, but, as we have already said, the rotation of the earth deflects their direction, and again it turns out to be a ring of winds. This is an anticyclone.

Different winds rush over our planet. The paths of some are so bizarre that even meteorologists cannot always calculate them in advance, while other winds have constant roads, like the pendulum of a clock. For example, a pendulum wind is a breeze. It blows only on the coast. Why? The sun rose and began to warm the earth and sea. Earth's surface It heats up faster than the sea, the waves continuously mix the upper - warm, and lower - cold water. Therefore, during the day the air above the hot earth is warmer than above the sea. It rises, and in its place a light breeze begins to blow from the sea to the land - the sea breeze. At night everything happens the other way around. The land is cooling faster than the water, and now the wind blows from the land to the sea; This is the onshore breeze.

There are other pendulum winds, for example, monsoons. Their permanent address is the tropical zone, stretching on both sides of the equator. They blow especially diligently in countries lying on the banks of Indian Ocean. Monsoons are seasonal winds. Of course, you remember that while it is winter here, it is summer in the tropics. So the monsoons blow where it is warmer, where the air pressure is less.

In summer, monsoons blow from the ocean to land, and in winter from land towards the ocean.

In the tropical zones of the oceans, another “disciplined” wind blows non-stop - the trade winds. At the equator, the vast water surface of the ocean, like a giant central heating radiator, warms and warms the air. Light, warm, it continuously flows upward, and in its place flows of colder air fly from the north and south. These are the trade winds. The rotation of the earth deflects them to the west. Using this feature of stable and reliable trade winds, sailors made many geographical discoveries. The trade winds inflated the sails of Columbus, Magellan and other brave sailors. The Spaniards called them “winds of travel,” and the British dubbed them “trade winds.”

The wind does many useful things. It turns the silver wheels of wind engines, it pollinates the flowers of many plants, and the wind carries seeds. But most importantly, he is the master of the weather.

The wind brings with it clouds, rain, snow...

The laws of movement of air masses are studied by meteorologists. All their winds are strictly recorded.

Hundreds of weather stations are scattered throughout the earth. Our meteorologists hunt for the weather in sultry deserts, meet storms on ships without seeing the sun for months, live at the drifting North Pole stations, and are not stopped by the eighty-degree frosts and hurricane-force winds of Antarctica.

Day and night, scientists monitor the life of the air, measure its temperature, humidity, and determine the strength and speed of the wind. In different parts of our country, weather scouts rise up every now and then. These are rubber balloons inflated with hydrogen. The passengers of these balls are small automatic devices. Using a radio transmitter, they talk about everything that is happening in the ocean of air. Special meteorological rockets are launched above the balloons, and thousands of radio signals - reports - are broadcast day and night.

In Moscow, in Central Institute forecasts, information received from all weather stations in the world, hundreds of thousands of numbers and icons are plotted on maps. Looking at such a map, a scientist will not only tell what the weather is like today in Kazakhstan or Brazil, he will be able to roughly determine what it will be like tomorrow, in a week. But, in order to say not approximately, but precisely, you need to calculate where and at what speed the winds blow, how they will behave along the way, where they will meet, where they will heat up, where they will cool, where they will turn... To calculate this, a person needs months. But now there are electronic calculating machines; They make all the calculations in a few minutes, and we find out what the weather will be like tomorrow in Moscow, Kyiv or Cuba. The machine will say everything.

The more information about the weather is collected from all corners of the earth, the more accurate the forecasts will be, the further ahead scientists will be able to look.

In autumn or winter, in calm and foggy weather, branches on trees and bushes, wires, antenna masts are covered with shaggy frost or a thread-like layer of ice - frost. Frost and rime consist of tiny particles of ice stuck together in the form of columns, thin feathers, needles, etc. Usually, frost is the name given to snow crystals that are formed from water vapor in a moisture-saturated atmosphere, and hoarfrost is ice sediment, emerging from supercooled fog droplets.

Frost and frost may appear, or they may disappear - if it suddenly gets warmer or a dry wind blows (ice crystals melt or evaporate, respectively). It turns out that even a small breeze can greatly change the picture of frosty patterns.

Look at the photo of a plant branch covered in frost. The branch was photographed on a frosty morning when it was very heavy fog, ice and a weak wind was blowing. Is it possible to unambiguously determine the direction of the wind from this photograph? Since frost is formed from droplets of fog, it appears on objects mainly on the leeward side and can grow quickly in the wind

In our case, during the shooting, weather conditions were favorable for the growth of frost (rather than melting ice), and a weak wind contributed to the appearance of anisotropy in the shape of ice growths. Therefore, looking at the photograph, it is easy to determine the predominant direction of the wind - the wind was blowing from the side where there is less frost . Now think about how you can tell by the appearance of ice crystals of frost or hoarfrost whether an ice build-up on the branches has formed long ago or recently?

Source: based on materials from. "Quantum"

Did you know?

From the history of the telegraph

As soon as telegraphy mastered the reliable transmission of messages using dots and dashes - the famous Morse code, it captured the minds of inventors new idea. Shouldn't we try to transmit by telegraph not just signs, but an image?

And the first such device appeared already in 1856. It was created by the Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli.

The principle underlying his device is simple and ingenious. A steel needle driven by a clock mechanism slides along the metal plate of the transmitter. Line by line, as if reading the page. An image is applied to the plate using special non-conducting ink. The needle electrical signal is interrupted, then resumes again.

And at this time, on the receiving device, the same needle runs along a sheet of paper coated with starch glue mixed with potassium iodide. When exposed to current, starch turns blue. The transmitted image appears. Of course, it’s not of God knows what quality, and besides, it’s negative - white on blue. However, the original idea was found, and it was further developed by other inventors.

Leonardo da Vinci's bicycle

In the papers of the famous scientist, engineer and artist of the Renaissance, a drawing was recently found depicting... a bicycle.

It differs only slightly in its design from a modern bicycle. Thus, to the numerous inventions of Leonardo - a diving suit, a submarine, a loom and others - we can add a bicycle.