When a deep low pressure cell forms in the atmosphre, the atmospheric gases flow into it. Because the atmosphere is coupled to a rotating earth, the motions of the molecules will be affected by this rotation. If a low pressure region occurs in the northern hemisphere, the flow of the atmospheric gases in towards the low pressure is diverted into a counterclockwise flow about the low presure cell and in extreme cases can give rise to a hurricane . The weather visualizer allows a student to make a customized weather map that displays the winds occuring over a selected region. For example, if the student wants to see the current ground-based weather map, then this page allows a custom surface map to be displayed.
Students can select wind as the parameter to be displayed.
The traditional wind maps that can be downloaded from the weather visualizer display the wind by a standard meteorological symbol . The stronger the wind blows, the colder it seems. We represent this by the wind chill factor , a numerical representation of how cold it seems. The wind is also represented by a simple arrow. The winds in the atmosphere represent a flow of the atmospheric gases in a manner analogous to the flow of water in a river or to currents in the oceans, or even the flow of lava from a volcano .