Global Atmospheric Sea Level Pressure during Hurricane Frances (WMS)
The weight of the Earth's atmosphere exerts pressure on the surface of the Earth. This pressure varies from place-to-place due the variations in the Earth's surface since higher altitudes have less atmosphere above them than lower altitudes. Atmospheric pressure also varies from time-to-time due to the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun and the rotation of the Earth, causing weather. In order to see the changes in pressure which affect the weather, the variation due to altitude is removed from the surface pressure, creating a quantity called sea level pressure. This animation shows the atmospheric sea level pressure for the whole globe from September 1, 2004, through September 5, 2004, during the period of Hurricane Frances in the western Atlantic Ocean and Typhoon Songda in the western Pacific Ocean. The sharp, moving low pressures areas for Frances and Songda can be clearly seen in the oceans. Even with the direct effect of altitude removed, cold high-altitude regions such as the South Pole and the Himalayan Plateau still exhibit lower-than-normal pressures, probably due to the interaction of cold air over those regions with the warmer air in the surrounding regions.
Global atmospheric sea level pressure from the 0.25 degree resolution fvGCM atmospheric model for the period 9/1/2005 through 9/5/2005.
This product is available through our Web Map Service.
Legend for the atmospheric sea level pressure.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animators
- Jeff de La Beaujardiere (NASA)
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
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Scientist
- William Putman (NASA/GSFC)
Release date
This page was originally published on Wednesday, July 27, 2005.
This page was last updated on Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 10:00 PM EDT.
Datasets used
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CLDTOT (Vertically-integrated, random overlap, total cloud cover (Inst) [fraction]) [fvGCM]
ID: 358 -
H300 (300 hPa Geopotential height (Inst) [m]) [fvGCM]
ID: 359 -
H500 (500 hPa Geopotential height (Inst) [m]) [fvGCM]
ID: 360 -
LHFX (Surface latent heat flux (Inst) [W/m2]) [fvGCM]
ID: 361 -
PRECC (Convective precipitation rate (Inst) [mm/day]) [fvGCM]
ID: 362 -
PRECL (Large-scale precipitation rate (Inst) [mm/day]) [fvGCM]
ID: 363 -
PRECP (instant precip rate at output time) [fvGCM]
ID: 364 -
Predicted Track [fvGCM]
ID: 365 -
SLP (Sea level pressure (Inst) [Pa]) [fvGCM]
ID: 366 -
T2M (2 meter temperature (Inst) (K)) [fvGCM]
ID: 367 -
T850 (850 hPa temperature (Inst) [K]) [fvGCM]
ID: 368 -
THICK (Thickness of the 500 hPa to 1000 hPa Layer (5400m = freezing line) (Inst) [m]) [fvGCM]
ID: 369 -
TQ (Total precipitable water (Inst) [kg/m2]) [fvGCM]
ID: 370 -
U10M (10 meter U wind (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 371 -
U200 (200 hPa U wind (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 372 -
U850 (850 hPa U wind (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 373 -
V10M (10 meter V wind (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 374 -
V200 (200 hPa V wind (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 375 -
V850 (850 hPa V wind (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 376 -
W10M (10 meter Vertical Velocity (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 377 -
W200 (200 hPa Vertical Velocity (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 378 -
W850 (850 hPa Vertical Velocity (Inst) [m/s]) [fvGCM]
ID: 379 -
Global Surface Wind Speed [fvGCM]
ID: 380 -
Global Atmospheric Water Vapor [fvGCM]
ID: 381 -
Global Convective Precipitation [fvGCM]
ID: 382 -
Global Atmospheric Surface Pressure [fvGCM]
ID: 383 -
Global Surface Latent Heat Flux [fvGCM]
ID: 384 -
Global Large-scale Precipitation [fvGCM]
ID: 385
Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.