How's the weather up there?

Layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Click through for larger image. Image courtesy Kelvin Song under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. 

Standing on the Earth’s surface, you can literally be blown away by the winds whipping around you. But from 70 miles up (113 kilometers), those storms raging below appear as mere ripples on a pond. That’s what the simulations produced by Hanli Liu, fluid dynamics researcher at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)  show.  

Down below in the troposphere (0-10 miles (0-16 kilometers) above the surface), air molecules are abundant and thicken like a hearty stew. But out near the edge of space (50-300 miles (80-480 kilometers) up) air molecules are in shorter supply and not subject to as much turbulence, but still able to wreak havoc on our telecommunication systems.

Processed by NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer Center, Liu’s models help scientists understand how storms on earth affect GPS so you don’t get blown off course.

Read more about how the NCAR aids people on the ground in our feature article “Cutting-edge simulations and satellite data combine to sharpen wildfire forecasting.”

- Lance Farrell