Air pressure is the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on the

earth.
The air pressure at Earth’s surface is not always the same because
air pressure changes, and when air pressure changes it is a sign of
change in weather.
What is air mass?
An air mass has the same temperature, amount of moisture, and air
pressure all through it.
-An air mass can be thousands of kilometres wide and several
meters high.
Global Wind Belts

Why were winds so important to the early explorers?

When Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and for centuries before and after,
ocean travel depended on the wind. Mariners knew how to get where they
were going and at what time of the year based on experience with the
winds. Winds were named for their usefulness to sailors, such as the trade
winds that facilitated commerce between people on opposite shores.

Global Wind Belts

Global winds blow in belts encircling the planet. Notice that the locations
of these wind belts correlate with the atmospheric circulation cells. Air
blowing at the base of the circulation cells, from high pressure to low
pressure, creates the global wind belts.
The global wind belts are enormous and the winds are relatively steady
(Figure below).

The major wind belts and the directions that they blow.
The Global Winds
Let’s look at the global wind belts in the Northern Hemisphere.
 In the Hadley cell air should move north to south, but it is
deflected to the right by Coriolis. So the air blows from northeast
to the southwest. This belt is the trade winds, so called because
at the time of sailing ships they were good for trade.
 In the Ferrel cell air should move south to north, but the winds
actually blow from the southwest. This belt is the westerly winds
or westerlies.
 In the Polar cell, the winds travel from the northeast and are
called the polar easterlies.
The wind belts are named for the directions from which the winds come.
The westerly winds, for example, blow from west to east. These names
hold for the winds in the wind belts of the Southern Hemisphere as well.
This video lecture discusses the 3-cell model of atmospheric circulation
and the resulting global wind belts and surface wind
currents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWFDKdxK75E (8:45).
The trade winds are the prevailing pattern of easterly
surface winds found in the tropics, within the lower portion of the
Earth's atmosphere, in the lower section of the troposphere near
the Earth's equator.
Trade Winds: South of about 30 degrees the northern or
northeast trade winds blow mostly from the northeast toward the
equator. These were the sailor's favorite winds, since the weather
was warm, and the winds usually blew steadily in an advantageous
direction. Columbus used these to sail to the Caribbean.
 One of the characteristics of an air mass is its relative humidity. Relative
humidity is a comparison of the actual amount of moisture in the air to the
greatest possible amount that could be in the air at the same temperature
and pressure. The relative humidity and temperature of an air mass depend
on the area of land or ocean where the air mass formed.