Graph I cannot understand, help please

[steve2470]

Last edited Sat Dec 23, 2017, 10:34 PM - Edit history (4)

This one from here: https://preview.tinyurl.com/ybk3c8ls


Here's a pic of it:




Here's the reason why I did this particular graph:

Link to tweet

I mainly need to know what the values are on the right. It's NOT Kelvin, I already looked that up. It's something else. Thank you in advance.

eta: Never mind, I think I found my answer here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geopotential_height

A plot of geopotential height for a single pressure level shows the troughs and ridges, Highs and Lows, which are typically seen on upper air charts. The geopotential thickness between pressure levels — difference of the 850 hPa and 1000 hPa geopotential heights for example — is proportional to mean virtual temperature in that layer. Geopotential height contours can be used to calculate the geostrophic wind, which is faster where the contours are more closely spaced and tangential to the geopotential height contours.[citation needed]

The National Weather Service defines geopotential height as:

"...roughly the height above sea level of a pressure level. For example, if a station reports that the 500 mb [i.e. millibar] height at its location is 5600 m, it means that the level of the atmosphere over that station at which the atmospheric pressure is 500 mb is 5600 meters above sea level. This is an estimated height based on temperature and pressure data."[1]

eta2: This might help flesh things out a bit more, very much above my pay grade lol

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0317.1

The Role of Standing Waves in Driving Persistent Anomalies of Upward Wave Activity Flux


eta3: So the way I am interpreting both my graph and the "reference graph" is that there are two areas of persistent low pressure in the Arctic, which is tending to drive the winds in the Arctic from the northwest. Siberian air is being moved from there (northeastern Siberia) to the Canadian Arctic because of the counter-clockwise circulation around the pair of lows.

eta4: I've stumbled upon the polar vortex

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_vortex

[Roland99]

1. From the legend, Im guessing height (altitude) in meters

[Irish_Dem]

2. Yes the title of the chart is Geopotential height, so not Kelvin temp.

From the internet:

Geopotential height approximates the actual height of a pressure surface above mean sea-level. Therefore, a geopotential height observation represents the height of the pressure surface on which the observation was taken.

[steve2470]

3. more

Link to tweet