Wind
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Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heat
Cup-type anemometer on a remote meteorological station
Winds are part of Earth's atmospheric circulation
RAF Exeter airfield on 20 May 1944, showing the layout of the runways that allow aircraft to take off and land into the wind
This wind turbine generates electricity from wind power.
Coriolis force
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In physics, the Coriolis force is a pseudo-force that acts on objects in motion within a frame of reference that rotates with respect to an inertial frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation
Wind
…large-scale atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet, which is called the Coriolis effect. Within the tropics and subtropics, thermal low circulations over terrain and high plateaus can drive monsoon circulations. In coastal areas the sea…
Image from Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus (1674) of C.F.M. Dechales, showing how a cannonball should deflect to the right of its target on a rotating Earth, because the rightward motion of the ball is faster than that of the tower.
Image from Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus (1674) of C.F.M. Dechales, showing how a ball should fall from a tower on a rotating Earth. The ball is released from F. The top of the tower moves faster than its base, so while the ball falls, the base of the tower moves to I, but the ball, which has the eastward speed of the tower's top, outruns the tower's base and lands further to the east at L.
Due to the Coriolis force, low-pressure systems in the Northern Hemisphere, like Typhoon Nanmadol (left), rotate counterclockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere, low-pressure systems like Cyclone Darian (right) rotate clockwise.
Cloud formations in a famous image of Earth from Apollo 17, makes similar circulation directly visible