Contour line future weather patterns. Isobars are commonly used in television weather reporting. Isallobars are lines joining points of equal pressure change during a specific time interval. These can be divided into "anallobars", lines joining points of equal pressure increase during a specific time interval, and "katallobars", lines joining points of equal pressure decrease. In general, weather systems move along an axis joining high and low isallobaric centers. Isallobaric gradients are important components of the wind as they increase or decrease the geostrophic wind. An isopycnal is a line of constant density. An "isoheight" or "isohypse" is a line of constant geopotential
Surface weather observation Surface weather observation Surface weather observations are the fundamental data used for safety as well as climatological reasons to forecast weather and issue warnings worldwide. They can be taken manually, by a weather observer, by computer through the use of automated weather stations, or in a hybrid scheme using weather observers to augment the otherwise automated weather station. The ICAO defines the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA), which is the model of the standard variation of pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity with altitude in the Earth's atmosphere, and is used to reduce a station pressure to sea level pressure. Airport observations