Why does wind speed change with increasing altitude?

Answer 1

Wind is slowest near the ground because of friction. You can see a small example of the friction effect by looking at the surface of a dusty car. The dust will not blow off even if the car is driven at high speed, because the air closest to the car's surface will be moving much more slowly than the car itself due to surface friction.

The strongest winds occur near the place in the atmosphere where the temperature stops dropping as you go higher, and starts to rise again. This is the tropopause, and the strong winds which occur there are known as jet streams. The causes of jet streams are complex, but, like all winds, are caused by air attempting to move from an area of high pressure (usually cold air) to one of low pressure (usually hot air).

Answer 2

It is more windier at higher altitudes because of the jet stream. If you want more information about this then go to wikipedia to find out about jet stream. Or if you are to lazy to do it yourself... I'll save you the time and give you the link. But remember if your at school, some schools have wikipedia block. Unless your home, then your Here you go:

<a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream>Click Here For Information on Jet Streams</a> (sorry about the link) Link didn't work

If the link doesn't work. Copy and paste the following site below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream

Answer 3

Air does not move over the earth in one uniform mass; it rushes in different directions. Hot air goes higher, cool air goes lower. The atmosphere is a three-dimensional space, so it is logical that wind direction will vary with height as well as with position on the earth's surface.

Answer 4

Yes because the air meets with less friction from Earth's surface...

Answer 5

Gravity acts on wind (air) just as it does on any other type of mass. The higher the mass the more time it has to fall and achieve terminal velocity.

Answer 6

Wind Speed increases with altitude as there is less vegetation cover as you get higher and there is less wind ground friction

Answer 7

There can be occasional exceptions to this rule from time to time, but most of the time wind increases with altitude.