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From: connolly@steinmetz.UUCP (C. Ian Connolly)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Re: Re: StarDate: July 11 Wind
Message-ID: <183@steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Jul-85 19:39:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: steinmet.183
Posted: Fri Jul 19 19:39:05 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 20:26:14 EDT
References: <333@utastro.UUCP> <28159@lanl.ARPA>
Organization: GE CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 25

> > 
> > On our planet Earth, the wind is always blowing somewhere.  So the wind
> > must ve a constantly renewable source of energy.  It turns out that the
> > wind stems from the ultimate energy source of almost everything on
> > Earth -- the sun.
> > 
> 
> *** OPUS LIVES !!! ***
> 
>   Which is puzzling:  since the air is heated in the morning, and
> cools in the evening, why isn't there a constant wind (shock wave,
> actually) at the speed of the earth's rotation?

 Off the top of my head, I'd say it's because friction and the viscosity
of the atmosphere prevent such a thing from occurring - a damping of the
shockwave, in effect.  In addition, convection is a vertical movement -
what goes up must come down, & density fluctuations due to water vapor
probably prevent such flows from being orderly & in lockstep with earth's
rotation.  Then there are orographic effects, such as mountains, and varying
albedo (snow fields absorb less energy than blacktop).  It's a physicist's
nightmare.
-- 
C. Ian Connolly, WA2IFI - USENET: ...edison!steinmetz!connolly
	   ,      ,	  ARPANET: connolly@ge-crd
An rud a bhionn, bionn.