Just as there are currents in the oceans, air also has currents. Also like oceanic currents, air currents can vary in speed, length and width as well as travel path. The jet stream is a name for one type of air current that is narrow in width and moves at a high speed.
Features
Jet streams can be found around the world where winds exceed 57 miles per hour, and can even be found on other planets. They form between masses of air that have significant differences in temperature such as at the tropopause (the place between the stratosphere and troposphere), in combination with the earth's rotation. The larger the difference is in temperature between the two masses, the faster the jet stream will be.
Jet streams are not always permanent, and can diverge, converge, begin and stop. The path of a jet stream is commonly east to west, and is meandering in shape, looking like a river or stream of water.
Geography
The strongest jet streams on earth are called polar jet streams (jet streams 23,000 to 39,000 feet above sea level), and subtropical jets (33,000 to 52,000 feet above sea level). Of these two, polar jets are the stronger. On earth, both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere experience large polar jet streams.
Considerations
Though it was being studied, the term jet stream didn't come about until 1939. In that year a man named H. Seilkopf, a German meteorologist, is credited with creating the actual term, and today the term "jet" also refers to a jet stream. To say "the jet stream" refers to the northern polar jet stream on earth.
History
The discovery of jet streams isn't a very clear one. Wasaburo Ooishi, a meteorologist in Japan, is possibly the first person to detect jet stream phenomena in the 1920s, by using weather balloons. However, his work wasn't widely known outside of Japan.
One theory for the development of jet stream discovery and understanding concerns World War Two pilots. Hence a certain amount of credit for jet stream discovery is given to Wiley Post, an American pilot who also invented a pressurized suit for high altitude flight. In 1933, he became the first person to fly around the world on his own.
Significance
Jet streams are an influential part of certain industries such as aviation, as with commercial flights, and meteorology, as when predicting the weather. Pilots who fly with the jet stream may lessen their travel time, while those who fly against it may increase their travel time. Jet streams influence weather phenomena such as storm systems, so by studying them, meteorologists are able to predict the weather to a degree of probable certainty.
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