Severl Major bands of high-and low-pressure areas exist in different parts of the world. Air moves from the areas of high pressure to the low-pressure areas. The movements between these areas contribute to the world’s winds and weather patterns.
If an isobar chart is observed, it can be seen that pressure is not distributed uniformly in the atmosphere around our planet: there are areas with a lower pressure than the surrounding areas and areas where the pressure is higher. Due to a characteristic of gases, air tends to move from high pressure areas towards those with low pressure in an attempt to balance the difference. The presence of high and low pressure areas is therefore the principal motor of all meteorological phenomena, in other words, of the ‘weather’. Hence, it is important to understand how air circulates close to these areas (see graph) and how they are distributed in the atmosphere.
Anticyclones
In high pressure zones, air tends to sink towards the ground causing the air that is present to move away with a divergent movement. The air gets compressed while descending and tends to disperse the clouds, and in fact high pressure conditions are associated with settled and calm weather. As a result of the Coriolis effect, air tends to move away from the high pressure system, clockwise in our hemisphere and anticlockwise in the Southern Hemisphere (anticyclonic circulation).
Cyclones
A low pressure area, instead, tends to attract air from the surrounding region where the pressure is higher. Near the centre of the cyclone, air tends to rise higher attracting a growing amount of air from the neighbouring areas. On rising, air expands and cools with the subsequent formation of clouds and precipitation: it is for this reason that low pressure areas are usually associated with bad weather. Air tends to converge towards the low pressure centre with an anticlockwise movement in our hemisphere and a clockwise movement in the Southern Hemisphere (cyclonic circulation).
Circulation cells
Temperature and pressure differences are not distributed casually in the atmosphere but permanent and stable low and high pressure areas can be identified, which are organized so as to form big circulation cells around the world (Mean Annual Isobars, Isobars in the month of July, Isobars in the month of January). This situation, obviously, is not static and unchangeable. During the year the circulation cells move towards the North or the South, depending on the unequal amount of solar energy that the different regions of the Earth receive in each season: in our hemisphere, they move towards the Equator in winter and towards the Poles in summer.
Three main circulation cells can be identified in each hemisphere that are placed symmetrically respect to the Equator.
Picture Credit : Google