PREFERRED TERM
Pressure
DEFINITION
- Surface pressure is a fundamental meteorological variable for which observations are required for initializing forecasts and for use in reanalysis systems. It is an indicator of circulation patterns. Differences between surface pressures at pairs of stations provide traditional indices of the North Atlantic and Southern Oscillations. Other indices are based on zonal means or principal-component analyses of gridded fields. Surface pressure also provides information on the intensity of weather systems, including tropical cyclones. It has an impact on sea level.
BROADER CONCEPT
ENTRY TERMS
- Surfce pressure
CREATOR
- phtr
URI
http://onto.nerc.ac.uk/EF/ECV/atmosphere/surface/surfacePressure