Question

Discuss the major effects of air pressure.

Answer 1

Hint: The air surrounding you is heavy as it is composed of several gases, and this air pushes into anything it comes into contact with. This pressure is known as air pressure, also classified as atmospheric pressure. It is the force applied on a surface by the air over it, when gravity draws the air towards the Earth.

Complete answer:
Air possesses weight, and as a result of this weight, it imparts pressure. A number of occurrences are caused by variations in air pressure from one place to another.

Some of the major effects due to air pressure can be listed as follows:
- Movement of wind: Wind is described as air flowing horizontally over the ground's surface. At the same time when air moves vertically they cause air currents. The underlying cause of these air motions is pressure variations created by the uneven distribution of the heat on the earth's surface.
- Conventional form of rain: The expansion and subsequent cooling of rising convectional air currents cause these rains. Convectional showers occur nearly every afternoon in the humid tropics due to the air expansion and subsequent cooling of up currents induced by radiation from hot surfaces.
- Cloud formation: Clouds are primarily created by the adiabatic cooling of rising air. Air expands as it grows, and this expansion, in the absence of heat, decreases the temperature, resulting in the formation of clouds. Clouds are often created to a certain degree as a result of the merging of air currents also.
- Monsoon rains: The rains caused by seasonal winds flowing towards the land from the sea is said to be monsoon rain. Monsoonal rains are caused by precipitation-carrying winds passing over the land which was cooled off by the rising air.
- Cyclonic rains: Cyclones are large masses of warm, low-pressure air that move unevenly from west to east in the wind belts of the west. Since cyclones are made up of hot, rising air, they often carry rain. This kind of rain is referred to as cyclonic rain.

Note: The air is lighter at higher altitudes as a result there is lower atmospheric pressure at higher altitudes. This is due to the fact that high areas do not possess much air above it, so the pressing of air will be lesser which means that the air pressure is lower up there.