Low-pressure area Low-pressure area A low-pressure area, low, depression or cyclone is a region on the topographic map where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure systems form under areas of wind divergence that occur in the upper levels of the troposphere. The formation process of a low-pressure area is known as cyclogenesis. Within the field of meteorology, atmospheric divergence aloft occurs in two areas. The first area is on the east side of upper troughs, which form half of a Rossby wave within the Westerlies (a trough with large wavelength that extends through the troposphere). A second
High pressure High pressure In science and engineering the study of high pressure examines its effects on materials and the design and construction of devices, such as a diamond anvil cell, which can create high pressure. By "high pressure" is usually meant pressures of thousands (kilobars) or millions (megabars) of times atmospheric pressure (about 1 bar or 100,000 Pa). Percy Williams Bridgman received a Nobel Prize in 1946 for advancing this area of physics by several magnitudes of pressure (400 MPa to 40,000 MPa). The list of founding fathers of this field includes also the names of Harry George Drickamer, Tracy Hall,