Re: correct air pressure

[Chris Alston <alstonc@odrge.odr.georgetown.edu>]

>Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 11:38:02 -0600 (CST)
>Errors-To: melissa@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>Reply-To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>Originator: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>Sender: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>From: "Otto G. Raabe" <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Re: correct air pressure
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
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>
>March 26, 1998
>Davis, CA
>
>The barometric pressures reported by meteorological services throughout the
>United States are not true absolute barometric pressures and cannot be
>directly used for any scientific purpose. To avoid public confusion they
>are all corrected to the value that they would have been IF the reporting
>location had been at sea level. 
>
>Here in Davis, CA, our altitude is only 55 feet above sea level, so the
>reported barometric pressures are nearly identical to those I measure with
>my mercury barometer (29.9 inches Hg = 76 cm Hg [at 0 C] = 101.3 kPa [SI]).
>When I worked in Albuquerque, NM, my laboratory altitude was 5555 feet
>above sea level. At that altitude the true barometric pressure was about 62
>cm Hg when the weather bureau was reporting 30 inches Hg. Special mercury
>barometers have to be constructed to operate at higher altitudes.
>
>Otto
>		*****************************************************
>		Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
>                [President, Health Physics Society, 1997-1998]
>		Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH)
>		     (Street address: Old Davis Road)
>		University of California, Davis, CA 95616
>		Phone: 530-752-7754  FAX: 530-758-6140 [NEW AREA CODE]
>		E-mail ograabe@ucdavis.edu
>