# What are factors in controlling atmospheric air pressure?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-factors-in-controlling-atmospheric-air-pressure/849167>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 9, 2020, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-factors-in-controlling-atmospheric-air-pressure/849167 "2020-03-09T22:38:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Yosh99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ccd318/32.png) [@Yosh99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yosh99)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-factors-in-controlling-atmospheric-air-pressure/849167/1 "2020-03-09T22:38:24Z")

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I understand that factors like air density, height of the air column, direction of air flow, etc have an effect on air pressure. My question is what are the relative effects? Maybe to put it another way, if there was a polynomial model, what would the relative coefficients be?

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**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-factors-in-controlling-atmospheric-air-pressure/849167/2 "2020-03-10T11:40:59Z")

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Temperature. Divergence of gradient of air flow, and its time derivative (if the air happens to be rushing toward you it is driving your atmospheric pressure up). Composition of the air column above you (e.g. water vapor is much less dense). Your altitude.

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**Author:** ![Yosh99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ccd318/32.png) [@Yosh99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yosh99)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-factors-in-controlling-atmospheric-air-pressure/849167/3 "2020-03-10T16:25:57Z")

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> [@Napier](#):
>
> Temperature. Divergence of gradient of air flow, and its time derivative (if the air happens to be rushing toward you it is driving your atmospheric pressure up). Composition of the air column above you (e.g. water vapor is much less dense). Your altitude.

Yes, I understand the various factors, but I’m trying to get a sense of their RELATIVE effect. What’s the most important factor? Is it 10X more important than the second most important factor?

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**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-factors-in-controlling-atmospheric-air-pressure/849167/4 "2020-03-10T22:59:17Z")

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Ah. Try these:

> **[Reference atmospheric model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_atmospheric_model)**
>
> A reference atmospheric model describes how the ideal gas properties (namely: pressure, temperature, density, and molecular weight) of an atmosphere change, primarily as a function of altitude, and sometimes also as a function of latitude, day of year, etc.
> A static atmospheric model has a more limited domain, excluding time.
> A standard atmosphere is defined by the World Meteorological Organization as "a hypothetical vertical distribution of atmospheric temperature, pressure and density which, by...

[https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/atmosmet.html](https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/atmosmet.html)