(Steven Shelikoff) wrote in message ...
On 20 Jan 2004 06:43:42 -0800, (basskisser) wrote:

K Smith wrote in message news:buioos$i68o1$1@ID-
Wind is solar energy, it's the product of the sun heating air.


A very small percentage of the wind on the planet is a "product of the
sun heating air".


In that case you'll now post what causes the rest??? Even the migration
of the various entire systems from the west to the east is directly
related to the sun.

Anyway if you think otherwise I for one will read your explanation with
interest.

K

Sure thing, ask and you shall receive. That above statement about
migration of various entire systems is pure rubbish. Ever hear of the
Coriolis Force? Guess not, huh? Anyway: Wind is the product of the

Apparently you have no idea of what the coriolis force is. Hint: in
order for it to have any effect at all, the air must already be moving.
I.e., the coriolis force has nothing to do with generating wind. But it
does affect the direction which the wind moves.

As the Earth rotates on its axis, gravity forces this relatively
"heavy" air near the Earth's surface to spin round with it. However,
the air higher up is less affected. The difference between the speed
at which air moves close to the surface and the speed of air higher up
forms vortexes or whirlpools. This mixing causes variations in air
speed, and, consequently, "wind" is generated at the earth's surface

Could you be thinking of frictional drag which slows down air close to
the surface? Again, for friction to have an effect, the air must
already be moving. The effect you're describing above accounts for only
a tiny fraction of surface wind, which is what powers sailboats. In
fact, without the spatial unequalness of the sun's heating, you wouldn't
be able to feel any wind at all.

You really should do just a tiny bit of research. If you did, you'd
discover that the sun is the driving force that generates the pressure
differentials which cause wind.

If you want, I'll give you a few links to read:

http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_wind.htm
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/85/
A lot of good links to info he
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/reso...cs/wworks0.htm
and a pretty good explanation of the forces acting on moving air:
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7n.html

If you want more, there's plenty available both on the web and in the
library. I suggest you try learning something for a change.

Steve

Here, stupid, from the link that YOU posted!!!!!:
What causes wind?
Wind is caused by air flowing from high pressure to low pressure.
Since the Earth is rotating, however, the air does not flow directly
from high to low pressure, but it is deflected to the right (in the
Northern Hemisphere; to the left in the Southern Hemisphere), so that
the wind flows around the high and low pressure areas. This effect of
the wind "feeling the Earth turn underneath it" is important for very
large and long-lived pressure systems. For small, short-lived systems
(such as in the cold outflow of a thunderstorm) the wind will flow
directly from high pressure to low pressure.

The closer the high and low pressure areas are together, the stronger
the "pressure gradient", and the stronger the winds. On weather maps,
lines of constant pressure are drawn (as in the example, above) which
are called "isobars". These isobars are usually labeled with their
pressure value in millibars (mb). The closer these lines are together,
the stronger the wind. The curvature of the isobars is also important
to the wind speed. Given the same pressure gradient (isobar spacing),
if they are curved anticyclonically (around the high pressure in the
above example) the wind will be stronger. If the isobars are curved
cyclonically (around the low pressure in the example above) the wind
will be weaker.