interesting pattern of winds in the stratosphere

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by sculptor, Mar 26, 2023.

  1. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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  3. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Remind me, please. The stratosphere is which layer of the atmosphere?

    Is this what is happening high up or near the ground?
     
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  5. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Seriously?!?
    Oh ok
    we are in the troposphere
    going up
    we have the tropopause
    and then stratosphere
    and then the stratopause
    and then the mesosphere
    and then the thermosphere
    and then the exosphere
    and then space(perhaps)
    none of whose boundaries are firm
    and different disciplines have different names --and levels
    we have the geosphere
    hydrosphere and biosphere
    and none of those boundaries are firm

    nothing is simple
    eg:
    the hadley cells
    are an interesting approximation of atmospheric/ meteorological activity within(?) our troposphere
    but the seeming chaos of our weather systems and climate don't fit comfortably within those confines

    anyway; the various patterns are interesting
    and observing them is fun
    enjoy
     
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  7. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Which of these levels is represented in the link? Without this information it is meaningless.
     
  8. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    You guys do know there is a menu at the link, right?

    (Hamburger, lower left)

    OTH, if you are just having fun with sculptor, do carry on...

    https://ibb.co/ctnTQRX

    * I haven't tried to upload or link an image in years, but the editor functions for this seem broken - hence the link.

    Using simple, advanced, text, bb code, upload local, insert linked image, manual tags - all of the above. Does it work for other people?
     

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    Last edited: Apr 5, 2023
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  9. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Aha, thanks for this, very helpful. So now we can see what sculptor failed to tell us, that his picture was of winds at an altitude at which the ambient pressure is 1% of that at the surface. But there seems to be no clue as to what altitude that is, unless I'm misreading the menu.

    (Sculptor has a habit of omitting the relevant details that might make his posts mean something, and this seems to be no exception.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    )
     
  10. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    It appears that the closest you can get is atmospheric pressure - under "height" which is in hPa (Hectopascals).

    I suspect that could be cross referenced to a table of some sort representing the "spheres" (stratosphere, etc.)

    Admittedly cumbersome...

    ---------------------------------------------
    Edited to add:

    Turns out wiki has just such a table at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Atmosphere

    Interestingly enough, wiki references sculptor's link in "external references" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2023
  11. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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  12. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    That's at about 110,000 feet (in a standard atmosphere.)

    https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/standard-atmosphere-d_604.html
     
  13. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Which is ~21miles, ~33km, so in the middle of the stratosphere. Not sure why that would be of great interest - and no explanation for the choice from sculptor of course - but there we are.
     
  14. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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  15. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    We know.

    The question is why the air flow pattern at 110,000ft is thought by sculptor to be interesting. It's too high to be part of the patterns that determine the weather.
     
  16. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Why guess what he's seeing? Why not ask?
     
  17. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    ok
    the image was stated to be at 10 hpa
    at 10 hpa
    above the equator
    the most likely height would be near the top of the stratosphere, or about 50 km above mean sea level
    (that can vary---day to day--week to week--month to month--year to year--decade to decade--century to century---etc...---)
    50 km is a good approximation for now

    as I said
    enjoy

    ..........................
    I find this interesting/entertaining, perhaps, because one of my courses of study included meteorology at SIU)
    ---great fun--and, I got hooked, --this was back when we got our information from ground stations and balloons and then had to know enough fortran to make punch cards which were then fed into the punch card readers for the computer ---then come back in a day or 2 and get your weather prediction printout.
     
  18. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I only see a broken image, so this entire thread is moot to me.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  19. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Yes. Does it worry you when somebody admits to not knowing something?
    Thanks.

    So, are there any particular interesting features at the altitude you referred to in your opening post, which you'd like to discuss?
     
  20. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    A)---no---
    (My beloved spouse has remarked that, quite often, I "make obscure references thinking that everyone knows that to which I am referring, when, quite often, that ain't true")
    sigh
    OOPS

    What I found interesting;
    was that what you see as blue smudges were very tight bands running along the 25 degree north and 35 degree south parallels
    The pattern is usually a tad more messy
    like now
    https://earth.nullschool.net/#curre...hographic=-93.07,-3.07,468/loc=-91.457,41.441

    the tight bands were what you might call "outliers"
    and outliers have always been of interest to me
     

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