Aviation Weather

For our entire existence, man has always sought to conquer the world we live in. We build dams to conquer rivers, boats to conquer the sea, cars and trains to conquer land, and airplanes to conquer the air.

There are things in nature that are too big and unpredictable to conquer, as of now we have not been able to conquer the weather. Weather and Mother Nature in general, is really majestic in that it does what it pleases and our influences in its actions are trivial. In this way the weather can be as unpredictable as it is predictable.

In the early 1920's a Japanese meteorologist named Wasaburo Ooishi was testing weather balloons in the upper atmosphere near Mount Fuji. His measurements revealed an area of constant high winds regardless of the season or time of day. His discovery, which was later published, went unnoticed outside of Japan most likely due to the language barrier. Around a decade later, an American pilot/innovator named Wiley Post was interested in discovering an area in the stratosphere which would provide an environment of low friction which could be used to increase the efficiency of long distance travel for airplanes in that time. During one of his flights across the country of Serbia he was forced to increase his altitude in order to avoid treacherous mountainous terrain. It was there that he first encountered a strong current of air, the jet stream.

During World War II, between November 1944 and April 1945, Japan, using Wasaburo's theory, launched over 9,000 balloons with bombs attached to them. They correctly theorized that those balloons would carry all the way towards North America. The balloons were carried by the pacific jet steam and a few hundred actually reached the American shore. Luckily those balloons did not result in many casualties and damage was minimal, regardless this was the first practical use of the jet stream.

Jet streams are best described as narrow, serpentine, wind currents in the atmosphere. They are very powerful and are located in between the troposphere and the stratosphere. Most of the major jet streams that are utilized head from East to West, this term is known as westerly. Pilots should always be on the lookout for jet streams because they can significantly cut down on travel times as well saving fuel and money. The path of a jet stream can be very winding and can stop and then start again abruptly. Jet streams are caused by atmospheric heating as well as the earth's rotation on its axis. They form in between air masses with significant differences in temperature, such as the polar region and the warmer air to the south.

The main use of jet streams in modern times is during air travel. This is because flight times can be reduced significantly while flying along the path of a jet stream. The location of the jet stream is extremely important for aviation. On November 18, 1952, the first commercial use of the jet stream