Seasonal Behaviour of Atmospheric Pressure Oscillations

Abstract

IT is well known that the atmospheric pressure at any given point does not remain constant in time and is subject to periodic and non-periodic fluctuations. Statistical analyses have been used to establish them and many investigations have been published. This communication reports the results of a spectral density analysis performed for the barometric pressure data at the Langmuir Laboratory (33° 59′ N., 107° 11′ W., elevation 3,320 m above mean sea level), a research facility of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and at the Institute campus at Socorro (34° 4′ N., 106° 54′ W., elevation 1,410 m above mean sea level). The Langmuir Laboratory is on a summit ridge of the Magdalena Mountains and the campus is 27 km east in the Riogrande Valley. A comparison of the results of these two stations provides an interesting example of atmospheric behaviour in a “mountain–valley” situation.