What do meteorologists mean when they say something is aloft?

Question

i've heard of winds aloft and other stuff but i don't know what it means

Answer 1

They mean in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

Answer 2

that its in the atmosphere

Answer 3

You know its useful to own a dictionary, but if you don't own a dictionary simply typing a word into Google will bring up the Merriam Webster dictionary as a link on the top right of the page.

Answer 4

The answers I've seen so far don't really understand the meteorological meaning of something being "aloft."  You've probably heard of high and low pressure areas, and if you have a barometer in your house you can tell when a high or low passes through your area because the barometric pressure will go up or down. Well, you can also have high or low that exist higher in the atmosphere, but whose pressures don't go all the way to the surface. Those highs and lows would be considered to be aloft. They're also called upper-level highs and lows. Sometimes a low pressure area doesn't have a closed circulation (the winds don't spiral all the way around it), then it would be called a trough aloft.

An interesting example is a hurricane.  They are intense low pressure areas at the surface and the winds go counterclockwise into them, but if you go high up in the atmosphere they become highs, and the winds go clockwise outwards from them. Therefore they are highs aloft.

Answer 5

at or to a great height