There are various periodic oscillations in the atmosphere, which, rising and falling like waves in the sea, occasion corresponding changes in the height of the barometer, but they differ as much from the trade-winds, monsoons, and other currents, as the tides of the sea do from the Gulf-stream and other oceanic rivers. The sun and moon disturb the equilibrium of the atmosphere by their attraction, and produce annual undulations which have their maximum altitudes at the equinoxes, and their minima at the solstices. There are also lunar tides, which ebb and flow twice in the course of a lunation. The diurnal tides, which accomplish their rise and fall in six hours, are greatly modified by the heat of the sun. Between the tropics the barometer attains its maximum height about nine in the morning, then sinks till three or four in the afternoon; it again rises and attains a second maximum about nine in the evening, and then it begins to fall, and reaches a second minimum at three in the morning, again to pursue the same course. According to M. Bouvard, the amount of the oscillations at the equator is proportional to the temperature, and in other parallels it varies as the temperature and the square of the cosine of the latitude conjointly; consequently it decreases from the equator to the poles, but it is somewhat greater in the day than in the night.
Besides these small undulations, there are vast waves perpetually moving over the continents and oceans in separate and independent systems, being confined to local, yet very extensive districts, probably occasioned by long-continued rains or dry weather over large tracts of country. By numerous barometrical observations made simultaneously in both hemispheres, the courses of several have been traced, some of which occupy twenty-four, and others thirty-six, hours to accomplish their rise and fall. One especially of these vast barometric waves, many hundreds of miles in breadth, has been traced over the greater part of Europe; and not its breadth only, but also the direction of its front and its velocity, have been clearly ascertained. Although, like all other waves, these are but moving forms, yet winds arise dependent on them like tide streams in the ocean. Mr. Birt has determined the periods of other waves of still greater extent and duration, two of which required seventeen days to rise and fall; and another which takes fourteen days to complete its undulation, called by Mr. Birt the November wave, passes annually over the British Islands, probably over the whole of Europe and the seas on its northern coasts. Its crest, which appears to be 6000 miles in extent, moves from N.W. to S.E. at the rate of about 19 miles an hour; while the extent of its barometrical elevation from its trough to its crest is seldom less than an inch, sometimes double that quantity. The great crest is preceded and followed at about five days’ interval by two lower ones, and the beginning and end are marked by deep depressions. The researches of M. Leverrier leave no doubt that the great Crimean storm of the 14th November, 1854, was part of this phenomenon,[8] for even a very small difference of atmospheric pressure is sufficient to raise a considerable wind. Since each oscillation has its perfect effect independently of the others, each one is marked by a change in the barometer, and this is beautifully illustrated by curves constructed from a series of observations. The general form of the curve shows the course of the principal wave, while small undulations in its outline mark the maxima and minima of the minor oscillations.