The atmosphere of some planets have fast flowing, narrow air currents and these are called Jet Streams. They are caused by a combination of the planets rotation and atmospheric heating and the Earth’s major jet streams are westerly winds.
Jet streams meander and their direction could vary; they may start, stop, combine or split into two. The polar jets are the strongest at about 23,000 to 39,000 feet above sea level.
The study of Jet streams is important as it is used to aid weather forecasting; drastically affect flight time during air travel based on whether the aircraft is flying with or against the stream; to eliminate possible aircraft hazard due to clean-air turbulence found in the vicinity of jet streams and sometime in the future airborne wind turbines may be powered by this natural phenomenon.
