Contour line factors in a weather system. An isobar (from or "baros", meaning 'weight') is a line of equal or constant pressure on a graph, plot, or map; an isopleth or contour line of pressure. More accurately, isobars are lines drawn on a map joining places of equal average atmospheric pressure reduced to sea level for a specified period of time. In meteorology, the barometric pressures shown are reduced to sea level, not the surface pressures at the map locations. The distribution of isobars is closely related to the magnitude and direction of the wind field, and can be used to predict
Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection intersects the unit sphere in exactly two points, one of which is on the lower hemisphere "z" ≤ 0. (Horizontal lines intersect the equator "z" = 0 in two antipodal points. It is understood that antipodal points on the equator represent a single line. See quotient topology.) Hence the directions in three-dimensional space correspond (almost perfectly) to points on the lower hemisphere. The hemisphere can then be plotted as a disk of radius using the Lambert azimuthal projection. Thus the Lambert azimuthal projection lets us plot directions as points in a disk. Due to the equal-area property of the projection,