Updated 8/30/99
500 mb heights and sea level pressure
| Atmospheric circulation over Beringia is strongly affected by mid-tropospheric variations of the East Asian trough-ridge system. During January, a strong 500-mb trough is centered well south of Beringia off eastern China. North of the trough in western Beringia at the surface, the Siberian high is prominent due to intensive radiational cooling, and the Aleutian low is dominant over the North Pacific. During July, the East Asian trough is weaker but centered over eastern Siberia, steering mid-latitude cyclones over the region and eventually into Alaska. At the surface, sea-level pressure values illustrate the dominance of the Pacific subtropical high in the North Pacific. It advects some moisture into southwestern Beringia from the Sea of Okhotsk. |
500 mb Heights: Sea level pressure: |
Figures after Mock et al. 1998