Can someone explain air pressure and its features to me?
I can’t get my head around what weather low or high air pressures create or why depressions and anti-cyclones come about. And could someone explain the Tri-cellular model to me?
That would be absolutely brilliant.
Thanks.
Tagged with: air pressures • cellular model • depressions
Filed under: Weather
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The atmosphere that covers all of Earth, although it is colorless, it has weight. At sea level the average weight of the entire atmosphere above your head would be 101.325 kilopqascals or 14.7 pounds. Obviously as you get higher in altitude there is less atmosphere above you so the atmospheric presure becomes less.
At an elevation of 18,000 feet (say on a high mountain in South America) the atmospheric pressure is 1/2 of the atmospherica pressure at sea level. That means that there is much less atmosphere above you. As you rise in altitude the amount of oxygen also becomes less. At 18,000 feet in altitude you would have trouble breathing.
If you were to go even higher, to the summit of Mt. Everest the atmospherica pressure would be 99% less than at sea level. At that altitude you would be above most of the Earth’s atmosphere and that is the death zone where it would be extremley difficult to breathe and in a short period of time you would die.
At the lower elevations in the atmosphere there are Low & High pressure areas. Think of a High pressure area as a high mound of air and a Low pressure area as a low air flow that when it runs into a High pressure area it is forced around the High pressure area. Think of a High as a big boulder in a creek that the flowing water has to flow around. This is exactly what happens with a High & a Low.
air pressure is pressure air in atmosphere putting on you
warm air is lighter than cold air
so when somewhere air gets warmer it rises up creating low pressure area
cold air from nearby area rushes there to fill the gap