Using a powerful supercomputer, weather forecasters divide the atmosphere up into an elaborate three-dimensional grid, assign initial values of pressure, wind-speed, humidity and so on, and then apply the laws of physics to see what happens next.

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Also, changes in the speed and pressure of the solar wind cause the termination shock to expand, contract and ripple.

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Chairman of pressure group Ill Wind, Des Fitzpatrick, said he was "confident" the plans would be overturned.

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On its own, the pressure exerted by the protons and electrons of the solar wind is even more feeble than the photon pressure.

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Layoffs have knocked the wind out of wage pressure.

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And such areas of high pressure are, almost by definition, accompanied by no wind.

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The assumptions of a 230 mph wind speed and a 1.2 psi rapid pressure decrease in about 1 second along with large and fast missiles is quite a force to design against.

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This is where the "wind" of electrically charged particles coming off the Sun is slowed by pressure from the sparse gas found between the stars.

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Instead of relying on photon pressure, it would enable a spacecraft to be pushed along by the charged particles of the solar wind itself.

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