How to watch the winds blow across the globe

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TWind paths are tested in the world remain largely invisible to us. And it turned out to be difficult to follow on a large scale on history. But I recently arrived on this driving model of the winds of the world, set in motion.

With the kind authorization of a network of satellites with noa and meticulous data work, this complete image – was put during the hours and days – gives a certain order to the apparently chaotic air movements in the world. (Look at the animated winds gust here.)

To obtain this wild and windy image of our planet at any time, the scientists of the NOAA use different types of images that satellites collect – from visible light to infrared light bouncing from water vapor in the air. The result is a layer in layers of air and its many paths.

The yellow forms display the wind trajectories that we could have felt ourselves at the surface (up to around 10,000 feet). The cyan designates the intermediate level winds where a single -engine airplane could fly, including 10,000 to 23,000 feet. And red is the field of jet stream and commercial flight, up to around 46,000 feet.

The monitoring of wind models is not only useful for drawing aviation routes. This also affects everything, forest fires and the risk of smoke to precipitation models and the paths of catastrophic storms. And scientists and sailors have noticed that the winds – and the storms that mount them on them – are to become more difficult to predict.

For the moment, I will look at the dazzling display of this data, because it sweeps the land, the sea and the sky – and in search of its traces outside the window.

Image of lead: Pishko Lensi / Shutterstock

• Katherine Harmon Courage

  Published on July 22, 2025

  Katherine Harmon Courage is the editor -in -chief of Nautilus.