Question: is it true that a strong jet stream can add or subtract microseconds from a day

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  1. Jet streams (nothing to do with jet planes!) are fast flowing, rivers of air found in the atmosphere at around 12 km above the surface of the Earth just under the second major layer of Earth’s atmosphere. They form at the boundaries of side-by-side air masses with significant differences in temperature, such as of the polar region and the warmer air to the south. Because of the effect of the Earth’s rotation the streams flow west to east, making serpentine or wave-like flows at lower speeds than that of the actual wind within the flow.

    They can affect climate, but I’ve never heard or read of them impacting on the rotation of the Earth (the speed of which determines the length of our day cycle).

    See more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream

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  2. But if you are in a plane moving with the jet stream, then relativity says time moves slightly differently for you. There have already been experiments to prove it – putting a very accurate clock in a fast plane and using the jet stream to help it go even faster

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Comments

  1. Ok thanks @miacobb

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