Earth  ID: 3203

Global High Altitude Wind Speed during Hurricane Frances (WMS)

Visualizations by Horace Mitchell Released on July 28, 2005
The Earth's atmosphere exerts pressure based on the weight of the air above. Differences in pressure from place-to-place cause winds to try to flow from high pressure to low pressure regions to even out the differences, but the Earth's rotation and wind friction with the surface act to slow or divert the winds. This animation shows the high altitude wind speeds for the whole globe from September 1, 2004, through September 5, 2004, during the period of Hurricane Frances in the western Atlantic Ocean and Typhoon Songda in the western Pacific Ocean. At high altitudes, the difference between between high pressures from warm tropical air and low pressures from cold polar air try to force air from the tropics toward the poles, but the Earth's rotation diverts this flow to the east, resulting in the high velocity west-to-east jet stream flows at mid-latitudes. The circular flows from Frances and Songda can barely be seen at this altitude.
Download Options
Global winds at 200 hPa geopotential height from the 0.25 degree resolution fvGCM atmospheric model for the period 9/1/2005 through 9/5/2005.

This product is available through our Web Map Service.
Download Options
Legend for the high altitude wind speed.

Visualization Credits

Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
William Putman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3203

Data Used:
fvGCM/Global High Altitude Wind Speed
Model - NASA - 2005-09-01T03:00 -- 2005-09-05T24:00
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of these series:
WMS
fvGCM

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Typhoons
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Winds >> Upper Level Winds
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Natural Hazards >> Meteorological Hazards
GCMD >> Location >> Global
SVS >> Hurricane Frances
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0