Eli5 is there an altitude where wind stops?

228 views

I understand there is no wind in space, and that air gets thinner the higher up you go, but is there a point in height from the surface, before space, where there is no more wind?

In: 1

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Good question.

In a sense yes. I can’t give you an answer to your question but maybe if you read about Felix Baumgartner’s skydive from the edge of space you might find an answer to where that point is.

I think he didn’t sense any air resistance at the start of the skydive because the air was so thin.

If the air is so thin that it doesn’t register on an anemometer then essentially wind doesn’t exist.

There won’t be a specific altitude because wind depends on air density. That point would change based on air density. Air density is going to change based upon ever changing environmental factors.

For example, a 20 mph wind has more force at 30 degrees than it does at 90 degress because the air itself is thinner at higher temperatures.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Nope!

Wind is the movement of air, driven by local changes in air pressure, mostly caused by uneven heating of the air. Anyway, while this is incredibly complex, and there are different heights in the altitude where winds tend to be faster or slower, wind in some form or another continues basically until there’s no air left. Even above the 100km mark that is often used to demarcate “space”, there are measurable mass movements of what gas molecules there are – or, in other words, wind!

Anonymous 0 Comments

The answer is mostly “no” – in fact, wind speeds in the upper atmosphere are considerably higher than they are here on the ground. You wouldn’t feel much, though, since the air up there is so thin that even hurricane-force winds don’t apply very much pressure.