Trailing vortices

Have you ever seen a plane fly and noticed those twisty turny spirals behind the wings? Those are called trailing vortices. Trailing vortices are swirls of air that are left behind a moving object, like an airplane, helicopter, or even a bird, as it moves through the air.

When the object moves through the air, it pushes the air around it out of the way. This creates an area of lower pressure behind the object. The air from higher pressure areas around the object then rushes in to fill this area of lower pressure, creating a swirling motion as it does so. This is what creates the trailing vortices.

Trailing vortices are important because they can affect other objects flying behind the moving object. If a smaller plane or helicopter flies too close to a larger plane or helicopter, it can be caught in the trailing vortices and get pushed around. This is called wake turbulence, and it can be very dangerous.

To avoid these hazards, pilots are trained to stay a certain distance behind other planes and to carefully navigate around areas with known turbulence. Air traffic control also helps by monitoring air traffic and providing guidance to prevent collisions.