PRESENTED BY:

Anshereena Mae Arines

Patricia Estrada
Nica Malantic
Kenneth Paras
 Forces which drive wind or
affect it are the pressure
gradient force, the Coriolis
force, buoyancy forces, and
friction forces. When a
difference in pressure exists
between two adjacent air
masses, the air tends to flow
from the region of high
pressure to the region of low
pressure. On a rotating planet,
flows will be acted upon by the
 The two major driving factors of
large scale global winds are the
differential heating between the
equator and the poles and the
rotation of the planet.

COMPONENTS OF WIND
Winds defined by an
equilibrium of physical forces are
used in the decomposition and
analysis of wind profiles. They are
useful for simplifying the
Examples are:
• Geostrophic wind-the theoretical
wind that would result from an exact
balance between the coriolis effect
and the pressure gradient force.
• Thermal wind-a vertical shear in the
geostrophic wind caused by a
horizontal temperature gradient. Its
name is a misnomer, because the
thermal wind is not actually a wind,
but rather a wind gradient.
• Ageostropic wind-the wind
component which is responsible for air
"filling up" cyclones over time
Air Masses
Vast pool of air with
(fundamentally) the same
temperature and moisture
characteristics over its horizontal
extent.

Air Mass Source Regions

• Characteristics
• Flat terrain
• Little wind
• High Pressure
Air Mass Classification
(based on:)
Moisture
• m for maritime
• c for continental

Temperature
• A for Arctic (60o - 90o N)
• P for polar (40o - 60o N or S)
• T for tropical (15o - 35o N or S)
• E for equatorial (15o N - 15o S)
• AA for Antarctic (60o - 90o S)
 Air Mass Types
•

Generalized Map of Global Air Masses

•Continental Arctic (cA)- very cold; very dry
•Continental Antarctic (cAA) - very cold; very dry
•Continental Polar (cP) - cold & dry
•Continental Tropical (cT) - warm & dry
•Maritime Tropical (mT) - warm & moist
•Maritime Equatorial (mE) - very warm; very moist
•Maritime Polar (mP) - cool & moist
Fronts
-boundary between contrasting
masses of air.

Semi-stationary fronts
• Polar Front - boundary
between tropical and polar -
type air.
• Arctic Front - boundary
between polar and arctic - type
air.
"Weather" fronts

Cold front     
• Cold air replaces warm air at a location.
• Steep frontal surface.
• Vertically developed,cumulus-type
clouds.
• Heavy precipitation of short duration.
Warm Front
• Warm air replaces cold air at a
location.
• Gentle frontal surface.
• Layered, stratus-type clouds.
• Light precipitation of long duration
along front.
Occluded Front
• Cold front "catches up" with warm
front
Stationary Front
• Little to no horizontal movement.
Stays in place.
 Atmospheric Pressure
force exerted by the weight of the air

Atmospheric pressure is defined

as the force per unit area exerted
against a surface by the weight of
the air above that surface. In the
diagram below, the pressure at point
"X" increases as the weight of the air
above it increases. The same can be
said about decreasing pressure,
where the pressure at point "X"
decreases if the weight of the air
above it also decreases.
 Thinking in terms of air molecules, if
the number of air molecules above a
surface increases, there are more
molecules to exert a force on that surface
and consequently, the pressure increases.
The opposite is also true, where a
reduction in the number of air molecules
above a surface will result in a decrease in
pressure. Atmospheric pressure is
measured with an instrument called a
 In aviation and television
weather reports, pressure is
given in inches of mercury
("Hg), while meteorologists use
millibars (mb), the unit of
pressure found on weather
 As an example, consider a
"unit area" of 1 square inch. At
sea level, the weight of the air
above this unit area would
weigh 14.7 pounds! That
means pressure applied by this
air on the unit area would be
14.7 pounds per square inch.
Meteorologists use a metric
unit for pressure called a
millibar and the average