Types of winds: general patterns

It is customary to call large-scale flowsatmospheric gases moving in one direction and, as a rule, at the same speed. In meteorology, the types of winds are primarily classified in the direction of movement, speed, spatial scale, forces, their defiant, regional affiliation and environmental impact. These air currents play a very significant role in the life of mankind, because for many centuries and millennia they served as a source of clean energy (sailing fleet, balloons, windmills, etc.).

Types of winds also differ in terms ofduration. Thus, short flows of up to several seconds, having a high speed, are usually called gusts, and even stronger and longer ones are called squalls. Long winds may vary depending on strength, direction, scale and some other parameters, which distinguish between a breeze (coastal wind), storms, storms, hurricanes, typhoons and others.

All types of winds have their own individualThe features by which they are identified by meteorologists. For example, a characteristic feature of the breeze is the change of direction twice a day. Winds are not only short-term, they can be seasonal, that is, they can show resistance for several months. Such atmospheric phenomena include monsoons. And trade winds in general have a constant and stable character.

Virtually all types of winds are the most important andan integral part of the ecosystem of the planet, a key relief-forming factor of its geological evolution. They take an active part in the processes of soil formation, cause erosion of rocks, which significantly changes the face of the planet. Air flows also carry the seeds of various plants, thereby promoting their wider distribution.

The wind, being one of the most powerful elementsour planet, had a huge impact on all aspects of the development of human civilization. In many peoples of the globe, winds were cultic or divine characters of mythology and epic, the main inspirers of poets and writers. Even in antiquity, when too much depended on the manifestations of this element in people's lives, a wind direction indicator was invented - a weather vane, a modern version of which is called an anemometer.

Often these atmospheric phenomena predeterminedhistorical events, expanded the range of trade relations and cultural exchange between the ancient countries. They were the driving forces of various mechanisms and inexhaustible sources of energy. Air flows allowed a man to climb into the sky for the first time, without them the invention of a parachute would not make sense. By the force of its influence, winds are comparable only with the energy of the Sun and the water element.

But, like any natural phenomenon, winds do not carryonly progress and development, but also destruction and death. They contribute to the spread of forest fires, the disturbances caused by them on water bodies lead to the destruction of various hydraulic and other structures. Turbulent tornadoes and tornadoes are always accompanied not only by grandiose destruction, but also by human casualties. With the impact of this climatic effect associated with a dangerous natural phenomenon such as sandstorms.

But the wind is not a purely earthly atmosphericeffect. The largest winds in the solar system, thousands of times stronger than their most destructive earth analogues, are fixed on the surface of the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter. In open space, too, rages its own version of this powerful and extremely destructive element - the solar wind, which is a gigantic and deadly stream of ionized radioactive particles. It is to him we owe this phantasmagoric phenomenon like the northern lights. Facing the terrestrial magnetosphere near the poles, this unusually powerful stream of solar radiation makes it shine.