Isopleths

Isopleths

An isopleth, or contour line, is a feature of meteorological charts, connecting points which have an equal value of some variable at a given time and spatial area. The particular variables shown on a given chart may include values such as pressure, temperature, wind speed, etc. They are used to assist in visualizing the general features of a meteorological "field". Some common types of isopleths include:

Isobar: a line of equal or constant pressure.

Isobront: a line drawn through geographical points at which a given phase of thunderstorm activity occurred simultaneously.

Isocline: a line of equal slope.

Isodop: a line of equal Doppler velocity on a radar display.

Isodrosotherm: a line of equal dewpoint.

Isoecho: a line of equal radar reflectivity on a radar display.

Isogon: a line of constant direction of some vector quantity (usually used to describe the wind direction field).

Isoheight: a line of constant geopotential height on a constant pressure surface chart. Because of their ubiquity, they are commonly referred to simply as "contours".

Isohume: a line of constant humidity.

Isohyet: a line of constant amount of precipitation during a given time period.

Isohypse: same as an isoheight.

Isotach: a line of constant wind speed.

Isotherm: a line of constant temperature.

Adaptations of isopleths in other sciences

In sociolinguistics and dialectology, an isogloss is a line on a map showing the boundary between two regional speech variants.


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