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An updraft or downdraft (air pocket) is the vertical movement of air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
 as a weather
Weather

Weather is a set of all the Phenomenon occurring in a given atmosphere at a given time. Weather phenomena lie in the hydrosphere and troposphere....
 related phenomenon. Commonly, one of two forces causes the air to move. Localized regions of warm or cool air will exhibit vertical movement. A pocket of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding region, and so will rise until it reaches air that is either warmer or less dense than itself.






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An updraft or downdraft (air pocket) is the vertical movement of air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
 as a weather
Weather

Weather is a set of all the Phenomenon occurring in a given atmosphere at a given time. Weather phenomena lie in the hydrosphere and troposphere....
 related phenomenon. Commonly, one of two forces causes the air to move. Localized regions of warm or cool air will exhibit vertical movement. A pocket of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding region, and so will rise until it reaches air that is either warmer or less dense than itself. The converse will occur for a mass of cool air, and is known as subsidence
Subsidence (atmosphere)

Subsidence in the Earth's atmosphere is most commonly caused by cold temperatures: as air cools, it becomes denser and moves towards the ground, just as warm air becomes less dense and moves upwards....
. This movement of large volumes of air, especially when regions of hot, wet air rise, can create large clouds, and is the main cause of thunderstorms. Drafts can also be created by low or high pressure regions. A low pressure region will attract air from the surrounding area, which will move towards the center and then rise, creating an updraft. The reverse will naturally occur in a high pressure region, as air moves away from the high pressure center.

Notable effects

Updrafts and downdrafts are some of the main causes of in-flight turbulence in planes, and are one reason airlines try to avoid regions of bad weather. Extreme cases, known as downburst
Downburst

A downburst is created by an area of significantly rain-cooled air that, after hitting ground level, spreads out in all directions producing strong winds....
s and microburst
Microburst

A microburst is a very localized column of sinking air, producing damaging divergent and straight-line winds at the surface that are similar to but distinguishable from tornadoes which generally have convergent damage....
s are responsible for many airplane crashes. The crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 191
Delta Air Lines Flight 191

This article is about the Delta Airlines landing crash at Dallas/Forth Worth Interational Airport. For the Delta Connection flight operated by Comair, the plane that crashed on August 27, 2006 in Blue Grass, Kentucky, see Comair Flight 191....
 on their final approach leg before landing in 1985 was presumably caused by a microburst, and prompted the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation with authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S....
 to research and deploy new storm detection radar stations at some of the major airports.

Downbursts can cause extensive localized damage, similar to that caused by tornado
Tornado

A tornado is a violent, rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud....
es. Downburst damage can be differentiated from that of a tornado because the resulting destruction is circular and radiates away from the center. Tornado damage radiates inward, towards the center of the damage.

See also

  • Air safety
    Air safety

    Air safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of Aviation accidents and incidents, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training....
    • LLWSAS
  • Thermal
    Thermal

    A thermal column is a column of rising air in the lower altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface from solar radiation, and an example of convection....
  • Wind shear
    Wind shear

    Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind wind speed and wind direction over a relatively short distance in the Earth's atmosphere....
  • Rear flank downdraft
    Rear flank downdraft

    The rear flank downdraft or RFD is a region of dry air wrapping around the back of a mesocyclone in a supercell thunderstorm. These areas of descending air are thought to be essential in the production of many supercellular tornadoes....
     and front flank downdraft
  • Atmospheric thermodynamics
    Atmospheric thermodynamics

    In the physical sciences, atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat and energy transformations in the earth?s atmospheric system. Following the fundamental laws of classical thermodynamics, atmospheric thermodynamics studies such phenomena as properties of moist air, formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorolo...
  • New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441
    New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441

    New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 was a scheduled flight of New Zealand National Airways Corporation from Whenuapai to Tauranga....
     — airplane crash linked to severe downdraft
  • Lee waves
    Lee waves

    In meteorology, lee waves, are Earth's atmosphere standing waves. The most common form is mountain waves, which are atmospheric internal gravity waves....
  • NEXRAD
  • Downdraft Table
    Downdraft Table

    Downdraft tables are workstations with built in ventilation to capture and filter dust, smoke, and fumes and then return the filtered air to a shop floor which can eliminate costly exhaust and energy loss....


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