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Discover the windiest places on Planet Earth. Robby Naish: the ultimate windsurfer and water sports icon. How to body drag in windsurfing. A new theory on sailing downwind faster than the wind. What is wind? How is wind created? The wind is the result of uneven heating of the Earth's surface. But how do air masses cause both light and strong breezes? This is all because of gravity, which is a driving force in controlling the vertical movement of air.
A more significant force affecting wind patterns, though, is the Coriolis force. The wind is no exception and is deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. The magnitude of the deflection is the least by the equator and the greatest around the poles. Other forces affect the behavior of winds as well.
A commonly known one, friction, is a strong influence over winds near the ground. Friction always acts in opposition to the wind velocity and the flow of air in general. This also reduces the effects of the Coriolis force, and the atmosphere adjusts to that by turning the wind toward low pressure.
These converging trade winds produce general upward winds as they are heated, so there are no steady surface winds. What are the prevailing westerlies? Between thirty and sixty degrees latitude, the winds that move toward the poles appear to curve to the east. Because winds are named from the direction in which they originate, these winds are called prevailing westerlies.
Prevailing westerlies in the Northern Hemisphere are responsible for many of the weather movements across the United States and Canada. What are the polar easterlies? At about sixty degrees latitude in both hemispheres, the prevailing westerlies join with the polar easterlies to reduce upward motion.
The polar easterlies form when the atmosphere over the poles cools. This cool air then sinks and spreads over the surface. As the air flows away from the poles, it is turned to the west by the Coriolis effect. Again, because these winds begin in the east, they are called easterlies.
What is a sea breeze? On a warm summer day along the coast, this differential heating of land and sea leads to the development of local winds called sea breezes. As air above the land surface is heated by radiation from the Sun, it expands and begins to rise, being lighter than the surrounding air. To replace the rising air, cooler air is drawn in from above the surface of the sea. This is the sea breeze, and can offer a pleasant cooling influence on hot summer afternoons.
What is a land breeze? A land breeze occurs at night when the land cools faster than the sea. In this case, it is air above the warmer surface water that is heated and rises, pulling in air from the cooler land surface. How is wind helpful to Earth? Wind is the fastest growing source of electricity in the world.
It's often one of the least expensive forms of renewable power available. Some experts say it can sometimes be the cheapest form of any kind of power. Generating power from the wind leaves no dangerous waste products behind. Best of all, its supply is unlimited. How do windmills work? Windmills work because they slow down the speed of the wind. The wind flows over the airfoil shaped blades causing lift, like the effect on airplane wings, causing them to turn.
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