What is wind?

 Air in motion.
 We feel wind because the air around us is moving or in motion.
 It is the flow of huge amount of air in, usually from high-pressure to low-
pressure.
 It is the movement of air caused by the uneven heating of the Earth by the sun.
 Wind is formed by the flow of air in horizontal directions through Earth’s
surface.
 The greater the difference between the high and low pressure areas, the faster
the wind moves.
 Wind direction is reported as the direction from which the wind blows, not the
direction toward which the wind moves. A north wind blows from the north,
toward the south.
 The movement of air molecules in the atmosphere. More generally, wind can be
defined as the flow of any gases, not only in air.
 Wind can occur on a small scale and large scale
1. Land and sea breeze is an example of small scale
2. Monsoon winds and planetary are example of large scale.

What causes wind to blow?

** Air is a mixture of gases, 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen with traces of water vapor,
carbon dioxide, argon, and various other components.

Wind is air in motion, travelling between areas of different pressure. To understand

what causes this motion; we first need to understand a bit about air pressure. When
air heats up, the atoms and molecules within it move faster and spread out. It is this
reaction to heat that causes warm air to expand and rise. In colder air the molecules
move more slowly and are closer together, which makes the air sink. When the heat
from the sun reflects off the Earth’s surface, it warms the air above it. This air will
rise, leaving areas of lower pressure. In contrast, areas of higher pressure occur
where the cooler air is located. When there is a difference in air pressure between two
areas, air will always move from the high pressure to low pressure area, to equalize
the pressure. The best example of how this causes wind is in coastal areas. On sunny
days, land warms up quicker than the sea. This creates a temperature contrast and,
as the land heats up, it warms and expands the air above it. As this warm air
expands, an area of low pressure is created over the land leaving relatively higher
pressure over the sea. This pressure difference causes air to move from the sea to the
land to equalize the pressure difference. That rush of air is the wind we experience. In
this case, a sea breeze.
 Heating of the earth, which in turn heats the atmosphere, is responsible for the
motion s and movements of the air in the atmosphere. The faster molecules move, the
hotter the air. As the molecules heat and move faster, they are moving apart. So air,
like most other substances, expands when heated and contracts when cooled.
Because there is more space between the molecules, the air is less dense than the
surrounding matter and the hot air floats upward. This is the concept used in the hot
air balloons. The air is heated by the burner and the expanding air becomes less
dense, causing the balloon to rise through the denser, cooler surrounding air.

Land and Sea Breeze

Methods of measurement

In-situ

 any observation taken by an instrument in direct contact with the medium it

"senses"
 In-situ observations are extremely helpful to meteorologists, but they don't exist
everywhere.

Remote sensing
 Remote sensing instrument is not in direct contact with the medium that it
"senses."
 Conventional radar and satellite images are products of remote sensing
 Remote sensors have active and passive remote sensors.
 Active (doer) - a remote sensing instrument is not in direct contact with the
medium that it "senses."
 Passive (eye) - detect natural electromagnetic waves emitted or scattered by
objects.

What are winds?

 - Wind can be defined as air currents or moving mass of air from high pressure
areas to low pressure areas.
- Air under high pressure normally moves towards areas under low pressure.
Thus, the greater the pressure difference, the faster the flow of air which creates
moving air with considerably strong force.
- Winds are defined based on their strength and direction.
- The pressure difference arises due to temperature changes and varying climate
zones across the planet.
- It is the great equalizer of the atmosphere, transporting heat, moisture,
pollutants, and dust great distances around the globe.

The Fastest Winds

In 1934, on the roof of a little wooden building atop Mount Washington, in New
Hampshire, an instrument to measure wind speed, called an anemometer, made
history. It recorded a wind speed of 231 miles per hour (mph) during a huge spring
storm, the fastest wind gust ever recorded with the instrument!

More recently, sophisticated Doppler radar has been used to measure winds, recording
a wind speed of 318 mph in an Oklahoma tornado in 1999. That’s faster than the top
speeds of Japanese bullet trains and over three times quicker than the fastest baseball
pitch.

Describing Wind

Wind is described with direction and speed. The direction of the wind is expressed as
the direction from which the wind is blowing. For example, easterly winds blow from
east to west, while westerly winds blow from west to east. Winds have different levels
of speed, such as “breeze” and “gale”, depending on how fast they blow. Wind speeds
are based on the descriptions of winds in a scale called the Beaufort Scale, which
divides wind speeds into 12 different categories, from less than 1 mph to more than 73
mph.

(https://eo.ucar.edu/basics/wx_2_c.html)

Info: In 1857, Dutch meteorologist Christoph Buys Ballot formulated a law about
geostrophic winds: When you stand with your back to the wind in the Northern
Hemisphere, low pressure is always to your left. (In the Southern Hemisphere, low-
pressure systems will be on your right.)
(https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/wind/)

The planetary winds blow in curved/deflected direction due to the rotational of the
earth.

The wind deflect to the right in Northern Hemisphere and left to the Southern
Hemisphere

Equator is an area of low pressure and the 30◦ N and 30◦S is the high pressure area.

Wind deflect to the right from the equator is called the North East Trade in the
Northern Hemisphere

Winds deflect to the left from the equator is called South East Trade in the Southern
Hemisphere.

(https://golearngeo.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/winds-2/)

But why does the air move at all?

You might be wondering why the air would move from high pressure to low pressure in
the first place. This is something that happens in nature all the time: things always try
to even out. It’s called diffusion.

Even people do it! When people get onto a bus, do they all sit on the same side of the
bus first? Do strangers sit next to each other when there are plenty of open seats? No
way. People want to spread out as much as possible.

Next time you feel the wind blow, think about where it’s going, and what temperatures
and pressures are causing it to do that.

What is wind?
Wind is air in motion. It is produced by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by
the sun. Since the earth’s surface is made of various land and water formations, it
absorbs the sun’s radiation unevenly. Two factors are necessary to specify wind: speed
and direction.
 What causes the wind to blow?
As the sun warms the Earth's surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the
Earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places
receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cold
air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of
air is what makes the wind blow.

Highs and Lows

Air is lifted in and around areas of low pressure. Remember, air pressure is the weight
of the atmosphere above you. When there is a large area of low pressure, there is less
air above so the air at the surface tends to rise. Alternatively, an area of high pressure
is like a hill of air in the atmosphere. The air in and around high pressure sinks and
spreads outward at the surface.

Another way to think about low and high pressure is to consider how and why the
wind blows. Wind is air in motion. The wind blows from areas of high pressure to
areas of low pressure. Its direction is influenced by the Earth's rotation. Some of this
is rising and sinking air (vertical motion) but most of the time when we talk about
winds we are talking about horizontal motion along the surface. A forecast of south
winds of 12 to 20 mph means the surface winds will be 12 to 20 miles per hour FROM
the south.

A large blue H is used to indicate the center

of high pressure areas on a map while large red L's General pattern of air flow around low and high pressure
mark the center of low pressure.

The lines around high and low pressure on a weather map are called isobars, or lines
of equal pressure, as shown in the above image on the left. When isobars are close
together it is very windy; when they are further apart, conditions are more calm. The
wind around highs always blows in a clockwise direction. ("clockwise" refers to the
direction that the hands on a clock tick) and winds around lows flows in the opposite
direction, or counter-clockwise.

This image on the right shows the general pattern of air flow around low and high
pressure. Air is feeding into the center of a low at the surface in a counter-clockwise
direction. When the air meets in the middle of a low, it has to rise (it can't dive down
into the Earth) and as it cools clouds are formed. The opposite circulation occurs
around highs with sinking air spreading out in a clockwise direction.

An L on a weather map shows where the weather action is. Low pressure regions
always create clouds and usually precipitation because the rising air cools and the
water vapor condenses. High pressure regions are usually associated with dry weather
because as the air sinks it gradually warms up and the moisture evaporates.

https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satmet/modules/7_weather_forecast/wf-4.html

The Highs and Lows of Air Pressure

Air near the surface flows down and away in a high pressure system (left) and air flows
up and together at a low pressure system (right).
Credit: NESTA

Standing on the ground and looking up, you are looking through the atmosphere. It
might not look like anything is there, especially if there are no clouds in the sky. But
what you don’t see is air – lots of it. We live at the bottom of the atmosphere and the
weight of all the air above us is called air pressure. A tower of air that is 1 inch square
and goes from the bottom of the atmosphere is 14.7 pounds. That means air exerts
14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) of pressure at the Earth’s surface. High in the
atmosphere, air pressure decreases. With fewer air molecules above, there is less
pressure from the weight of air above.
Pressure varies from day to day at the Earth’s surface - the bottom of the atmosphere.
This is, in part, because the Earth is not equally heated by the Sun. Areas where air is
warmed often have lower pressure because the warm air rises and are called low
pressure systems. Places where air pressure is high are called high pressure systems.

A low pressure system has lower pressure at its center than the areas around it.
Winds blow towards the low pressure, and the air rises in the atmosphere where they
meet. As the air rises, the water vapor within it condenses forming clouds and often
precipitation too. Because of Earth’s spin and the Coriolis Effect, winds of a low
pressure system swirl counterclockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of
the equator. This is called cyclonic flow. On weather maps a low pressure system is
labeled with red L.

A high pressure system has higher pressure at its center than the areas around it.
Wind blows away from high pressure. Winds of a high pressure system swirl in the
opposite direction as a low pressure system - clockwise north of the equator and
counterclockwise south of the equator. This is called anticyclonic flow. Air from higher
in the atmosphere sinks down to fill the space left as air blew outward. On a weather
map the location of a high pressure system is labeled with a blue H.

How do we know what the pressure is? How do we know how it changes over time?
Today, electronic sensors are used to measure air pressure in weather stations. The
sensors are able to make continuous measurements of pressure over time. In the past,
barometers were used that measured how much air pushed on a fluid such as
mercury. Historically, measurements of air pressure were described as “inches of
mercury.” Today, meteorologists use millibars (mb) to describe air pressure.

https://scied.ucar.edu/shortcontent/highs-and-lows-air-pressure
Explanations:

Bago tayo tumungo sa ating paksa para sa araw na ito, alamin muna ano ng aba ang
mga patungkol sa hangin o wind na ating nararamdaman araw araw.

WHAT IS WIND?

 So ano nga ba itong wind. Ang salitang ito ay alam natin ngunit minsan
mahirap ipaliwanag kung ano nga ba siya. According to National Center for
Atmosperic Research, wind is a moving air and is caused by differences in air
pressure within our atmosphere. So air is composed of Nitrogen 78% Oxygen
21% Water Vapor 1-4%. And air pressure ibig sabihin ay force na naeexert
niya sa specific area.
 Wind moves from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas. It’s like squeezing
balloons kasi kapag nisqueeze yung balloon yung part na nisqueeze is high
pressure at yung labas is low pressure so ang tendency, yung high pressure
gagalaw siya papunta sa low so it will go out and puputok. Ganun din yung sa
paggalaw ng wind kapag may difference sa air pressure ng dalawang area from
high to low ang paggalaw para maequalize yung pressure. And habang
gumagalaw

WHAT CAUSES WIND?

It is the movement of air caused by the uneven heating of the Earth by the sun.

Wind Zones

1. The polar easterlies are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow from the high-
pressure areas of the polar highs at the north and south poles towards low-pressure
areas within the Westerlies at high latitudes.
Cold air subsides at the pole creating the high pressure, forcing a southerly
(northward in the southern hemisphere) outflow of air towards the equator.

This outflow is then deflected westward by the Coriolis effect, therefore these
prevailing winds blow from the east to the west.

Since the winds originate in the east, they are then known as easterlies.

Unlike the westerlies in the middle latitudes, the polar easterlies are often weak and
irregular.

(https://www.wfmz.com/weather/what-are-the-polar-
easterlies_20160526092943526/16504101)

The polar easterlies are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow around the high-
pressure areas of the polar highs at the North and South Poles.[1] Cold air subsides at
the poles creating high pressure zones, forcing an equatorward outflow of air; that
outflow is then deflected westward by the Coriolis effect. Unlike the westerlies in
the middle latitudes and trade winds in tropics, the polar easterlies are often weak and
irregular. The polar easterlies are one of the five primary wind zones, known as wind
belts that make up our atmosphere's circulatory system. This particular belt of wind
begins at approximately 60 degrees north and south latitude and reaches to the poles.

(https://www.revolvy.com/page/Polar-easterlies)

2. Westerlies

The Westerlies are winds that blow in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees
latitude.

The westerly winds, also known as the westerlies, occur at two regions on Earth:
between 30 and 60 degrees latitude in the northern hemisphere and between 30 and
60 degrees latitude in the southern hemisphere. The name of these unique winds
comes from the direction of their origin; the westerlies run west to east while other
winds run east to west.

(https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-westerlies.html)

(https://www.revolvy.com/page/Prevailing-winds)

3. Horse Latitudes

The horse latitudes are located at about 30 degrees north and south of the equator. It is common
in this region of the subtropics for winds to diverge and either flow toward the poles (known as
the prevailing westerlies) or toward the equator (known as the trade winds). These diverging
winds are the result of an area of high pressure, which is characterized by calm winds, sunny
skies, and little or no precipitation.
According to legend, the term comes from ships sailing to the New World that would often
become stalled for days or even weeks when they encountered areas of high pressure and calm
winds. Many of these ships carried horses to the Americas as part of their cargo. Unable to sail
and resupply due to lack of wind, crews often ran out of drinking water. To conserve scarce
water, sailors on these ships would sometimes throw the horses they were transporting
overboard. Thus, the phrase 'horse latitudes' was born.

(https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/horse-latitudes.html)

The horse latitudes are a narrow zone of warm, dry climates between westerlies and the trade
winds. Horse latitudes are about 30 and 35 degrees north and south. Many deserts, from the
rainless Atacama of South America to the arid Kalahari of Africa, are part of the horse latitudes.

The prevailing winds at the horse latitudes vary, but are usually light. Even strong winds are
often short in duration.

(https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/wind/)

4. Trade Winds

Trade winds are the powerful prevailing winds that blow from the east across the tropics. Trade
winds are generally very predictable. They have been instrumental in the history of exploration,
communication, and trade. Ships relied on trade winds to establish quick, reliable routes across
the vast Atlantic and, later, Pacific Oceans. Even today, shipping depends on trade winds and the
ocean currents they drive.

The trade winds (also called trades) are the prevailing pattern of easterlysurface winds found in
the tropics near the Earth's equator,[4] equatorward of the subtropical ridge. These winds blow
predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in
the Southern Hemisphere.[5] The trade winds act as the steering flow for tropical cyclones that
form over world's oceans, guiding their path westward.[6] Trade winds also steer African dust
westward across the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean sea, as well as portions of southeast
North America.

(https://www.revolvy.com/page/Prevailing-winds?cr=1)

5. Doldrums

The place where trade winds of the two hemispheres meet is called the intertropical convergence zone
(ITCZ). The area around the ITCZ is called the doldrums. Prevailing winds in the doldrums are very
weak, and the weather is unusually calm.

The ITCZ straddles the Equator. In fact, the low-pressure doldrums are created as the sun heats the
equatorial region and causes air masses to rise and travel north and south. (This warm, low-pressure
equatorial wind descends again around the horse latitudes. Some equatorial air masses return to the
doldrums as trade winds, while others circulate in the other direction as westerlies.)

Although monsoons impact tropical as well as equatorial regions, the wind itself is created as the ITCZ
moves slightly away from the Equator each season. This change in the doldrums disturbs the usual air
pressure, creating the moisture-laden Southeast Asian monsoon.

- The "doldrums" is a popular nautical term that refers to the belt around the Earth near the
equator where sailing ships sometimes get stuck on windless waters.

Known to sailors around the world as the doldrums, the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, (ITCZ,
pronounced and sometimes referred to as the “itch”), is a belt around the Earth extending approximately
five degrees north and south of the equator. Here, the prevailing trade winds of the northern hemisphere
blow to the southwest and collide with the southern hemisphere’s driving northeast trade winds.

Due to intense solar heating near the equator, the warm, moist air is forced up into the atmosphere like a
hot air balloon. As the air rises, it cools, causing persistent bands of showers and storms around the
Earth’s midsection. The rising air mass finally subsides in what is known as the horse latitudes, where the
air moves downward toward Earth’s surface.

Because the air circulates in an upward direction, there is often little surface wind in the ITCZ. That is
why sailors well know that the area can be calm sailing ships for weeks. And that’s why they call it the
doldrums.

(https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/doldrums.html)

The doldrums exist in a belt circling the globe, near the equator; this belt consistently features low
atmospheric pressure, a lack of significant winds and weather that is often cloudy and rainy.

(https://sciencing.com/hadley-cell-effects-8550966.html)

REMOTE SENSING

- Acquiring information or data about the earth’s surface without actually being
in contact with it.
- Best example is our eyes. Many things we observe even without touching them
and we can gather information.
- This is done by sensing and recording reflected energy and processing,
analyzing and applying the data gathered.
- Evelyn L. Pruitt