Question

How are winds formed?

Answer 1

As the Sun unevenly heats the surface of the Earth, air rises and sinks, resulting in high and low regions of air pressure. As air rises, the pressure lowers and surrounding air moves in to replace it, causing wind.

Answer 2

This begins with the sun’s radiation, which is absorbed differently on the earth’s surface. The earth's surface is heated differently because of scenarios like cloud cover, mountains, valleys, water bodies, vegetation and desert lands.  As a result of this uneven heating, there are bound to be earth surfaces that vary a lot in temperature. Air on surfaces with higher temperatures will then begin to rise because it is lighter (less dense). As the air rises, it creates low atmospheric pressure. Air on surfaces with cooler temperatures sink (do not rise). The sinking creates higher atmospheric pressure. This behaviour or warm gases or liquids moving upward and being replaced by cooler particles is called Convection. The energy moving during convection is called convectional current.