What are Jet streams?
Jet streams are narrow bands of strong winds that blow from west to east around the world.
Jet streams expand where air masses of different temperatures increase. Therefore, the surface temperature usually determines where the jet stream is formed. The velocity of the air inside the jet stream as the temperature difference increases. The jet stream extends from 20 ° latitude to the poles of both hemispheres.
What is the origin of the Jet stream?
The origin of jet-stream is given by three types of gradients:
- The thermal slope between the pole and the equator
- The pressure gradient between the pole and the equator
- The pressure gradient between the surface and surface air at the poles.
Where does it actually start?
In the tropics, the air heats up around the equator and deliver fuel as it rises above the jet stream. At an altitude of about 58,000 feet, it kills the troposphere (the layer of the atmosphere that separates the troposphere from the stratosphere) and is attracted to the cold air at the North and South Poles.
What is Jet Stream Theory?
Jet stream theory is the study of the narrow belt of westerly winds at high altitudes in the troposphere. Its speeds range from 110 km / h in summer to 184 km / h in winter. This system acts as a surface covering that affects the climate of the lower atmosphere. This theory was put forward by Yeast.
It is driven by the difference between air pressure, temperature and humidity from one place to another. The velocity of the air inside the jet stream as the temperature difference increases. The path of the stream has a curved shape, it can start or stop, split into two or more parts, merge into the stream, or flow in different directions, including the opposite direction with the rest of the jet. The main types are the polar jet, the subtropical Western jet, and the less common tropical eastern jet.
What are the types of Jet streams?
Subtropical jet streams thrive best in winter and early spring. They reach a maximum speed of 300 knots and are associated with fusion with polar-front jets. There is also an optimal motion along with the subtropical jet, which mainly causes fair weather in the areas through which they pass. Sometimes they flow north and merge with the polar-front jet.
Tropical Easter jet streams occur during the summer near Tropos in Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. This jet represents a layer of warm air to the north of the jet and cold air to the south of the Indian Ocean. This jet is guided by the difference between heating and cooling and the incoming pressure gradient.
The polar night jet stream passes through the upper stratosphere at the poles. These subdural low pressures are found in the convergent zone above the abdomen.
What is the climate significance of jet stream?
- Occasionally, a jet stream brings some moisture into the stratosphere, forming night clouds (weak cloud-like events in the upper atmosphere made up of ice crystals seen in deep twilight).
- The monsoon plays an important role in the onset and return of winds.
- It is known that some ozone-depleting substances are brought into the stratosphere, which depletes the ozone layer.
- Its circulation accelerates the alternating cyclonic and anticyclonic states with the formation of crusts and troughs.
- When a mass of air is in motion, it undergoes intermittent expansion and compression, i.e. it is subject to high pressures and low pressures.
What are jet stream features?
- Its origin is related to the thermal intensity of air cells, for example the Hadley cell and the Farrell cell.
- The rotational or deflection speed of a jet stream is called the ‘Rossby Wave‘.
- The equatorial expansion of the jet stream is greater in winter due to the southern shift of the pressure belts.
- In winter, the thermal intensity increases and the intensity of the high pressure center at the pole increases. This accelerates the formation of the jet stream and its expansion and speed.
How does the jet stream affect the Indian monsoon?
- The subtropical jet stream plays an important role in intercepting monsoon winds and initiating the Indian monsoonfaster.
- Western jet streams in the upper air are located in winter in Asia. They are divided into two branches due to the Tibetan Himalayan barrier. The northern branch flows north to the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. The southern branch flows south of the mighty mountains.
- During the summer, when the sun falls vertically on the Tropic of Cancer, the high pressure of the polar surface weakens and the polar rotation of the upper air shifts to the north, resulting in the western jet removing the upper air from the southern slopes of the Himalayas. The removal of the jet stream in the northern part of the Tibetan Plateau overcomes the curvature of free air to the north and northwest of the subcontinent. This event triggers the ‘burst’ of the monsoon. The eastern jet stream is the hottest summer in the Tibetan Plateau.
- Therefore, we can say that the theory does not explain why the eastern jet stream is uncertain. A general explanation is that it is the result of a change in the sunset. However, this type of variant requires proper analysis.
How can a jet stream help us to predict the weather?
Weather satellites such as the Geostationary Operating Environment Satellite-R Series use infrared radiation to detect water vapor in the atmosphere. This method allows meteorologists to locate the jet stream.
Jet stream monitoring will help meteorologists determine where the weather monitor will go next. But jet streams are also a little unpredictable. Hurricanes can change their direction in unexpected directions. So satellites like GOES-16 can report for a moment where they are in the jet stream environment and how the weather can move.
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