+ Visit NASA.gov + Advanced Search   + About the Server   + Animation List   + How to Use the Server Previous Animation Next Animation 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. Duration: 20.0 seconds Available formats:   160x80       PNG           22 KB   320x160     JPEG         8 KB   80x40         PNG           6 KB   1000x721   Frames   640x320 (29.97 fps) MPEG-1   5 MB How to play our movies This product is available through our Web Map Service.   Click here to learn more.    Legend for the atmospheric sea level pressure. Available formats:   320 x 90           PNG   1 KB Animation Number: 3182 Animators: Jeff de La Beaujardiere (Lead)   Horace Mitchell Studio: SVS Completed: 2005-06-22 Scientist: William Putman (NASA/GSFC) Data sets: fvGCM   fvGCM: CLDTOT (Vertically-integrated, random overlap, total cloud cover (Inst) [fraction])   fvGCM: H300 (300 hPa Geopotential height (Inst) [m])   fvGCM: H500 (500 hPa Geopotential height (Inst) [m])   fvGCM: LHFX (Surface latent heat flux (Inst) [W/m2])   fvGCM: PRECC (Convective precipitation rate (Inst) [mm/day])   fvGCM: PRECL (Large-scale precipitation rate (Inst) [mm/day])   fvGCM: SLP (Sea level pressure (Inst) [Pa])   fvGCM: T2M (2 meter temperature (Inst) [K])   fvGCM: T850 (850 hPa temperature (Inst) [K])   fvGCM: THICK (Thickness of the 500 hPa to 1000 hPa Layer (5400m = freezing line) (Inst) [m])   fvGCM: TQ (Total precipitable water (Inst) [kg/m2])   fvGCM: U10M (10 meter U wind (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: U200 (200 hPa U wind (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: U850 (850 hPa U wind (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: V10M (10 meter V wind (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: V200 (200 hPa V wind (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: V850 (850 hPa V wind (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: PRECP (instant precip rate at output time)   fvGCM: W10M (10 meter Vertical Velocity (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: W200 (200 hPa Vertical Velocity (Inst) [m/s])   fvGCM: W850 (850 hPa Vertical Velocity (Inst) [m/s]) Data Collected: 2005-09-01T03:00 -- 2005-09-05T24:00 Series: WMS   fvGCM Keywords: DLESE >> Atmospheric science DLESE >> Natural hazards GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Typhoons GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Pressure >> Sea Level Pressure GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Human Dimensions >> Natural Hazards >> Meteorological Hazards GCMD >> Location >> Global SVS >> Hurricane Frances Google Earth KML file is available here. DEPC Metadata is available here.     Please give credit for this visualization to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Back to Top + Privacy Policy and Important Notices + Reproduction Guidelines NASA Official: SVS Contact: Curator: