The wind is one of the most unique natural phenomena. We cannot see it, touch it, but we are able to observe the results of its manifestation, for example, how it slowly or quickly drives clouds and clouds across the sky, with its power tilts trees to the ground or slightly ruffles foliage.

Wind concept

What is wind? The definition from the point of view of meteorology is as follows: this is the horizontal movement of layers of air from a zone with high atmospheric pressure to a zone of low pressure, accompanied by a certain speed. This movement occurs because during the day the sun penetrates the Earth's air layer. Some rays, reaching the surface, heat the oceans, seas, rivers, mountains, soil, rocks and stones, which give off heat to the air, thereby heating it as well. For the same amount of time, dark objects absorb more heat and warm up more.

But what does it matter how heat is given off and how quickly? And how does this help us figure out what wind is? The definition is as follows: land heats up faster than water, which means that the air accumulated above it receives heat from it and rises, therefore, Atmosphere pressure falls over this area. With water, everything is exactly the opposite: above it, the air masses are colder and the pressure is higher. As a result, cold air is forced out of the area high pressure in a low area, forming a wind. The greater the difference between these pressures, the stronger it is.

Types of winds

Having dealt with what wind is, you need to find out how many of its types exist and how they differ from each other. There are three main groups of winds:

  • local;
  • permanent;
  • regional.

Local winds correspond to their name and blow only in certain areas of our planet. Their appearance is associated with the specifics of local reliefs and temperature changes in relatively short periods of time. These winds are characterized by short duration and diurnal periodicity.

What is a wind of local origin is now clear, but it is also divided into its subspecies:

  • A breeze is a light wind that changes direction twice a day. During the day it blows from the sea to the land, and vice versa at night.
  • Bora is a high-velocity cold air current that blows from the tops of mountains to valleys or coasts. He is fickle.
  • Föhn is a warm and light spring wind.
  • Dry wind is a dry wind that prevails in the steppe regions during the warm period of time under anticyclone conditions. He foretells drought.
  • Sirocco - swift southern, southwestern air currents that form in the Sahara.
  • What is the khamsin wind? These are dusty, dry and hot air masses that prevail in northeast Africa and the east of the Mediterranean.

Constant winds are those that depend on the total circulation of air. They are stable, uniform, constant and strong. They belong to:

  • trade winds - winds from the east, are distinguished by constancy, not changing direction and strength of 3-4 points;
  • antitrade winds - winds from the west, carrying huge air masses.

The regional wind appears as a result of pressure drops, a bit like the local one, but more stable and powerful. bright representative This species is considered the monsoon, which originates in the tropics, at the turn of the ocean. It blows periodically, but in large streams, changing its direction a couple of times a year: in the summer season - from water to land, in winter - vice versa. The monsoon brings a lot of moisture in the form of rain.

Strong wind is...

What is a strong wind and how does it differ from other streams? Its most important feature is its high speed, which ranges from 14-32 m/s. It produces devastating actions or brings damage, destruction. In addition to speed, temperature, direction, location and duration also matter.

Types of strong winds

  • A typhoon (hurricane) is accompanied by intense precipitation and a drop in temperature, great strength, speed (177 km / h or more), blows at a distance of 20-200 m for several days.
  • What is a wind called a squall? This is a sharp, sudden flow at a speed of 72-108 km / h, which is formed during the hot period as a result of the powerful penetration of cold air into warm zones. It blows for a couple of seconds or tens of minutes, changing direction, and brings a decrease in temperature.
  • Storm: its speed is 103-120 km/h. Characterized high duration, force. He is the source of strong sea vibrations and destruction on land.

  • Tornado (tornado) is an air whirlwind, visually similar to a dark column along which a curved axis passes. At the bottom and top of the column there are expansions similar to a funnel. The air in the vortex rotates counterclockwise at a speed of 300 km / h and draws all nearby objects, objects into its funnel. The pressure inside the tornado is reduced. The column reaches a height of 1500 m, and its diameter is from a dozen (above water) to hundreds of meters (above land). A tornado can travel from a couple of hundred meters to tens of kilometers at a speed of 60 km/h.
  • A storm is an air mass, the speed of which is in the range of 62-100 km/h. Storms abundantly cover the area with sand, dust, snow, earth, causing harm to people and the economy.

Description of wind force

When answering the question of what wind force is, it would be appropriate to note that here the concept of force is interconnected with speed: the higher it is, the stronger the wind. This indicator is measured on a 13-point Beaufort scale. Zero value characterizes calm, 3 points - light, weak wind, 7 - powerful, 9 - the appearance of a storm, over nine - merciless storms, hurricanes. Strong winds often blow over the sea, ocean, because nothing interferes with them here, unlike rocky mountains, hills, forests.

Definition of the solar wind

What is solar wind? it amazing phenomenon. Ionized plasma particles flow out of the solar corona (outer layer) into space with a speed range of 300-1200 km/s, which depends on the activity of the Sun.

There are slow (400 km/s), fast (700 km/s), high-speed (up to 1200 km/s) solar winds. They are around the central heavenly body form an area with space that protects solar system from interstellar gas. In addition, thanks to them, such phenomena as the radiation belt and the aurora borealis occur on our planet. That's what the solar wind is.

“Wind, wind in all God's world,” wrote A. Blok. It is difficult to argue with the poet: it is difficult to find a place on our planet where there has never been a wind. And this is not surprising, because the air, surrounding the earth, is in in constant motion. Why is this happening?

Imagine that the air on Earth is heated uniformly. Then there would be no wind in its usual form: the air would move only vertically - it would rise, heating up, and descend, cooling down. But since the atmosphere heats up unevenly, in place of the rising warm air the heavier cold one is constantly moving. The air heats up most strongly over the equator, weaker over the poles. That's why they exist constant winds, blowing in the direction from the poles to the equator (of course, not quite straight, because the rotation of the Earth also affects their direction): in the northern hemisphere - from the northeast, in southern hemisphere- from the southeast. Over the continents, their direction changes somewhat, but over the oceans nothing interferes with them, and it was these winds that were the main "assistants" of sailors in the days of sailing ships. That is why they were called "favorable to movement" - in Spanish, viento de pasada, or trade winds.

Over the very region of the equator, between the thirtieth degrees of northern and southern latitude, the trade winds have no power. Here, as a rule, there is a calm - a real "curse" for sailing ships. In the old days, ships, having got here, risked being “stuck” for a long time - water supplies dried up, and in order to save it, sailors had to throw horses on board ships overboard. It was rumored that in these parts at night you can see the ghosts of unfortunate animals ... and therefore these latitudes were called "horse".

The difference in air temperature exists not only between the equator and the poles, but also between the ocean and land. It generates monsoons - seasonal winds in Africa and Asia. In summer they blow from the ocean to the mainland and bring rain, but in winter their direction changes: they blow from the mainland to the ocean.

Direction constant winds can change not only on a continent scale depending on the seasons, but also locally - depending on the time of day (after all, air and water temperatures also change during the day). Such a wind blowing on the coast or on the shore big lake called a breeze. During the day, the Sun heats the land faster than water, and a sea breeze blows from the sea to the land (it is also called the day breeze). At night, everything happens exactly the opposite: the land cools faster than the sea - and now the wind blows from the coast to the sea, this is called the coastal (or night) breeze. The speed of such a wind is small, no more than five meters per second, but it can be felt even several tens of kilometers from the coast.

In some cases, the wind is generated by land relief features. So, in areas where not far from the coast are located low mountains, a stream of cold air, having overcome an obstacle in the form of mountains, can fall on the coast with great force, causing a temperature drop of up to forty degrees. This wind is called bora. He “lives” from one day to a week, but manages to make trouble (for example, in 2002, several dozen people died in Novorossiysk because of such a wind).

There are also winds of "local significance", which may even have proper names Yes, on mediterranean coast France spring blows cold wind from the Cevennes mountain range - it is called mistral. He is able to uproot trees, and those that survived grow leaning towards the south. Mistral causes so many problems (especially - agriculture) that A. Dumas called it the scourge of Provence along with the Durance River, infamous for its floods, and ... parliament.

Have your own local wind and on Baikal, originating from the movement of cold air from the Daurian steppes. It is especially strong in autumn, but even then its speed does not exceed 20 m/s. This is about him sung in the old song of exile and penal servitude: "Hey, Barguzin, stir the shaft, thunder is heard."

In the Russian North, the wind blowing from White Sea, called siverko. Pomors have long believed that the siverko invigorates at work and amuses in moments of rest ... However, one can talk endlessly about local winds ... after all, the wind, as you know, is "in all God's world."

CONSTANT WIND - a wind that retains its direction and speed over time if its direction changes by no more than one rhumb within two minutes. There are winds of different constancy: in terms of speed - even, gusty (spirits), squally (bare); in direction - constant (trade wind, strip,) or unstable, changing, transitional (changeable, shaky) and vortex, circular (vortex,).

Dictionary of winds. - Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. L.Z. Proh . 1983

See what "STANDING WIND" is in other dictionaries:

    WIND- WIND, wind man. movement, flow, flow, current, air flow. According to its strength, the wind happens: a hurricane, a kavk. bora: storm, storm (usually a thunderstorm and rain are connected with a storm), severe, strong, windstorms: medium, weak, calm wind or breeze, breeze, ... ... Dictionary Dalia

    WIND- (Wind) movement air masses in a horizontal direction or, in other words, horizontal air flows. Each V. is characterized by two elements: the direction in which the air moves, and the speed with which it ... ... Marine Dictionary

    A constant wind blowing without interruption for several days and nights on the lake. Seliger. Wed Married wind ... Dictionary of winds

    sunny wind This term has other meanings as well. sunny wind(film) ... Wikipedia

    SUNNY WIND- constant radial flow of solar plasma. corona into interplanetary right. The flow of energy coming from the bowels of the Sun heats the plasma of the corona up to 1.5 2 million K. Post. heating is not balanced by the loss of energy due to radiation, because the density of the corona is low. ... ... Physical Encyclopedia

    sunny wind- represents a constant radial outflow of the plasma of the solar corona (See Solar corona) into interplanetary space. S.'s education associated with the flow of energy entering the corona from the deeper layers of the Sun. Apparently…… Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    Conditional (calculated, fictitious) wind, constant along the entire trajectory of a flying projectile, rocket or other object. It has the same effect on flight as the actual wind (changing along the path). B. c. simplifies calculations of wind action ... Dictionary of winds - ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron