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Pressure and Infrared Satellite
This panel depicts sea-level pressure across the United States.
This chart is useful for finding regions of
high and low
pressure systems.
The solid white contours represent pressure contours
(isobars) in millibars.
The isobars have an interval of 4 millibars. The wind speed is directly
related to the distance between the isobars. The closer they are together,
the stronger the pressure gradient,
and the stronger the wind.
In the background, infrared satellite
data shows the cloud patterns over North America.
The brightness of the cloud images is inversely proportional to the temperature
of cloud tops, therefore the deep clouds with high (and thus cold) cloud tops
typically indicating areas of intense rain and/or hail associated with
deep convection appear brightest on this
image. However high cirrus clouds
will often also appear very bright, but these clouds do not produce
precipitation.
Low and
high pressure systems can also be located
from the map above. Low pressure systems are located in the regions
of the lowest pressure, while high pressure
systems are located in the regions of highest pressure.
For more information on how pressure affects the weather go to our
forces and winds module.
pressure & wind
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pres, ir sat, wind
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![[Image: (46K)]](gifs/irslp1.gif){kind=link}