Anticyclones

Characteristics of the Anticyclone

The day natural colour RGB image has been overlaid with the NWP mean sea level pressure (MSLP) forecast for 20 March 2016 at 1400 UTC. Study the location and intensity of the anticyclone, then answer the question below.

Question

What does the product indicate about the anticyclone?

The correct answers are A and D.

The size of the system is one sign of its intensity. This anticyclone is indeed extensive and covers a large region of the southern Atlantic Ocean. It shows typical clouds, including stratus, stratocumulus, some medium-level clouds, and areas of clear skies within the weak winds near the system’s centre.

The centre of the anticyclone is located around 38 degrees south, 3 degrees west, and more than 2000 km south of Saint Helena. The maximum MSLP is above 1030 hPa. A high pressure ridge extends from the centre towards the equator. When this ridge is intense, it steers the location of the unstable air masses over the Congo Basin, and can even induce heavy rains over the central and eastern African region.

Please make a selection.