There are huge waves in our upper atmosphere. David Fultz looked for a way to understand them.

The waves are named for a meteorologist, Carl-Gustav Rossby, who worked on them in World War II. During that time, bombers burned up their fuel fighting strong winds as they tried to approach Japan from the east.

Shifting position north or south let them avoid these high-speed air waves. They could also fly higher or lower, avoiding the pummeling of hundred-mile-per-hour winds. So the term "jet stream," implying a high-speed flow with defined edges and a core, was coined to fit those winds.

As more observations were made, mainly over the Pacific Ocean, the shape and pattern of the jet streams could be plotted. They were seen to flow in huge waves that bent centered over the Aleutian Islands an

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