do jet streams determine the weather?
Answers
Answer:
Yes, jet streams determine the weather.
Explanation:
Jet Streams and the weather
Jets streams play a key role in determining the weather because they usually separate colder air and warmer air. Jet streams generally push air masses around, moving weather systems to new areas and even causing them to stall if they have moved too far away.
While they are typically used as one of the factors in predicting weather, jet streams don’t generally follow a straight path — the patterns are called peaks and troughs — so they can shift, causing some to point at the poor forecasting skills of meteorologists.
Climatologists say that changes in the jet streams are closely tied to global warming, especially the polar jet streams, because there is a great deal of evidence that the North and South poles are warming faster than the remainder of the planet. When the jets streams are warmer, their ups and downs become more extreme, bringing different types of weather to areas that are not accustomed to climate variations. If the jet stream dips south, for example, it takes the colder air masses with it.
Jet streams also have an impact on air travel and are used to determine flight patterns. An airplane can travel much faster, and save fuel, by getting “sucked up” in the jet stream. That can also cause a bumpy flight, because the jet stream is sometimes unpredictable and can cause sudden movement, even when the weather looks calm and clear.
Who discovered jet streams?
Aeronautics played a role in the discovery and mapping of jet streams. Many credit bomber pilots flying missions during World War II with much of the knowledge we have today about the jet streams. They were able to quicken their missions and beat hasty retreats over the Mediterranean Sea by making the most of the jet streams.
But even before WWII bomber pilots used the jet streams. Wiley Post, an American pilot and the first to fly solo around the world in 1933, contributed to our knowledge of these forces of nature. He developed a pressurized suit to fly higher in the atmosphere and noted the differences in pressure at various levels. This set the stage for the understanding of the jet stream and pressurized flight.
German meteorologist H. Seilkopf is often credited with coining the phrase "jet stream," as he used in a research paper published in 1939.
Volcanoes have also played a role in understanding of the jet stream. Observers of the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcanic island in Indonesia documented its effect on the sky, and in the 1920s Japanese meteorologist Wasaburo Oishi used aviator balloons to identify the jet stream from a site near Mt. Fuji.
More recently, many European flights were grounded after the 2009 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano —further proof that plumes of volcanic ash have a tendency to get sucked into the same jet stream that airplanes use for travel