Class Response: Winds

Winds! Winds! Winds! Wind can get really annoying sometimes, but it also helps our world keep cool. You may think that there is only one type of wind, wind. Well, in class I learned that there are actually 2 major types of winds, local winds and global winds. Local winds are winds that blow in absolutely any direction, depending on the location. These winds don't travel very far, and only cover short distances. Global winds on the other hand, are winds that blow in one direction and cover larger distances and may appear all around the world. These winds depend on the Earth's rotation, the earths movement around the sun, and because of the round shape of the world. In addition, Jetstreams, known as wind phenomena, are long bands of very strong wind. They occur at places where the contrast between hot and cold is very large. Jetstreams occur generally at an altitude of 30,000 - 40,000 feet.

Class Response: The Earth's Atmosphere

In class, we began learning about the Earth's atomosphere, and its layers. The atmosphere is divided into five layers; troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and the thermosphere, which has two parts, the ionosphere and exosphere. The atomosphere is thickest near the surface and thins out until it eventually merges with space. The troposphere is where all weather takes place, and is the layer we basically live in. All the rain, snow, wind, etc. occurs in this layer. Next, is the stratosphere is where the temperature increases with altitude. The thin ozone layer in the upper stratosphere has a high concentration of ozone, a reactive form of oxygen. Ozone is concentrated around an altitude of 25 kilometers. This layer is mostly responsible for absorbing the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In the Earth's mesosphere, the air is relatively mixed together and the temperature decreases with altitude. The atmosphere reaches its coldest temperature of around -90°C in the mesosphere. This is also the layer in which a lot of meteors burn up while entering the Earth's atmosphere. Above the mesosphere is the ionosphere, the lower part of the thermosphere. where many atoms are ionized, which means they have gained or lost electrons so they have a net electrical charge. Scientists call the ionosphere an extension of the thermosphere, so technically the ionosphere is not another atmospheric layer. The ionosphere is very thin, but it is where auroras take place. Very high up, the Earth's atmosphere becomes very thin. The region where atoms and molecules escape into space is referred to as the exosphere, which is the upper part of the Earth's thermosphere. Thats what I've learned in class, and I hope all of that information enlightened you too! =]

Extra Credit: Weather Poetry

To the Thawing Wind

Come with rain. O loud Southwester!

Bring the singer, bring the nester;

Give the buried flower a dream;

make the settled snowbank steam;

Find the brown beneath the white;

But whate'er you do tonight,

bath my window, make it flow,

Melt it as the ice will go;

Melt the glass and leave the sticks

Like a hermit's crucifix;

Burst into my narrow stall;

Swing the picture on the wall;

Run the rattling pages o'er;

Scatter poems on the floor;

Turn the poet out of door.

-Robert Frost

This poem, To The Thawing Wind by Robert Frost definitely connects with weather in many ways. In this piece of poetry, weather is used to describe the setting and action. The poet uses his knowledge of weather to, as I said before, describe the place of the action, in a very creative way. Within this poem, the kind of weather discussed it rain, wind, snow, and sun(heat). Without the mention of weather, this poem would be completely different, because all of the imagery would be missing, making this poem truly boring. The literary techniques used in this poem in regards to weather are imagery, rhyming, and metaphors. This poem doesn't really further my knowledge about weather, because in this poem, weather is being used as description, not as information or scientifically.