3/16/24, 1:25 PM Air Pressure and Elevation

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Air Pressure and Elevation

Turns out that the gravity of the earth actually does cause the gradual
change in the density of air as you go from the surface of the planet
upwards to outer space. And since density of gases is really just
another way of expressing pressure, we can say that the air pressure of
the earth is very dependent on the height (elevation) at which you take
that pressure. The good news is that down here in the troposphere
where we all live and breathe, the pressure is pretty much a directly
linear function of elevation.

Below is a plot of altitude vs pressure up to around 12 km which means

this is pretty much for the first layer of our atmosphere known as the
troposphere.

Plot of Altitude (aka: Elevation) vs Pressure

12

cruising altitude
10
Mt Everest
8
altitude (km)

6 Denali

2
Denver,
Burj Khalifa
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
pressure (kPa)

The relationship is very close to linear for the first 4-5 km. You can see
that the pressure drops about 10 kPa for every 1 km in altitude rise.
After this linear region, it gradually changes over to more of an
exponential fall off in pressure as the altitude reaches to the boundaries
of our atmosphere.

It is also worth noting that the plot does extend to negative elevations a
bit. There are places on earth that are considerably below sea level and
therefore have higher pressures. Death Valley here in the United States
is like that at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. The lowest elevation on
earth is the Dead Sea which is 1388 ft (423 m) below sea level.

There are many physical and chemical phenomena that are affected by
differences in pressures. A very common one is the boiling point of a
liquid. Lower applied pressures result in lower boiling points. This is

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3/16/24, 1:25 PM Air Pressure and Elevation
why many directions for preparing pasta have a note about boiling for a
longer time (2-3 minutes longer) if you are at a higher elevation.

external links

atm. pressure

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