Chapter 5-9 Flashcards
How does dew form?
- Clear calm night
- Objects close to the ground cool rapidly by emitting infared radiation
- ground and objects become colder than surrounding air
- air in contact with these surfaces cools by conduction
- given enough time, air will cool to the Dew point
- water then condenses to the cold surfaces
- dew will freeze if temperature drops below freezing
How does frost form?
- Formation similar to dew or frozen dew
- Dew point starts out below freezing (frost point)
- water vapor changes directly to ice without becoming a liquid
- Deposition occurs
Condensation Nuclei versus cloud condensation nuclei?
Cloud condensation nuclei greater than 1 micrometer, cloud condensation nucli are actual clouds.
What are the particles that make up cloud condensation nuclei?
Dust, volcanoes, smoke, salt, sulfate particles emitted by phytoplankton.
What does Hygroscopic mean?
Waterseeking
Below what RH does condensation not form?
Below 80 Percent.
How does fog form, give 2 ways.
Radiation fog:
- forms best on clear night when a shallow layer of moist air is below a larger layer of dry air.
- the shallow layer does not absorb much of the outgoing IR radiation from the surface.
- the ground, therefore, cools very rapidly
- the air above the layer also cools very rapidly and a surface inversion forms.
- the moist layer is chilled by the cold surface and becomes saturated.
Advection fog:
- surface air is cooled my moving warm moist air over a cold surface
- example: Pacific coast during summer
- surface water near the coast is much colder than surface water offshore
- warm, moist air from the Pacific Ocean is carried by westerly winds over the cold, coastal waters
- also forms over land
- warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico moves Northward over colder, elevated land
- this fog is called advection-radiation fog
Why is fog more dense over cities?
searching
Evaporation or Mixing Fog
Forms when warm unsaturated air moves into cooler unsaturated air, moistening it to evaporation. Common when cool air moves over a non frozen lake.
Where do you find Lenticular Clouds?
Mountain terrain
Crest of wave
Banner or cap cloud
lenticular cloud that forms downwind of a mountain peak.
Mammatus Clouds
Cloud that hangs like sacks, formed by sinking air with high moisture content.
Jet Contrails
Exhaust particles, hygroscopic and attracts water
Nacreous
Nacreous Clouds
An unusual cloud best viewed at winter in the poles and forms in the stratosphere.
Noctilucent Clouds
An unusual wavy cloud that is best viewed at the poles and forms in the upper mesosphere.
Why are clouds white?
clouds are white because their water droplets or ice crystals are large enough to scatter the light of the seven wavelengths (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), which combine to produce white light.
Why are clouds dark?
The main reason why rain clouds are dark is due to their particulate density. As clouds are formed from minuscule water droplets and/or ice crystals, the denser they are packed, the more light radiating from the Sun is scattered and dispersed by them, lending a darker appearance to their lower sections.
Reflection
The process by which energy incident on a surface is turned back at the same angle into the medium through which it originated.
Scintillation
Means stars twinkling.
Planets
Don’t twinkle unless they are near horizon, too bright.
Scattering or Diffusion
The process by which light rays change direction of propagation thorugh the interation with particles, such as molecules, aerosols, and cloud particles.
Why is the sky blue?
More blue, shorter wavelengths are scattered by atmospheric gasses, longer red wavelengths pass right through and are not scattered.
Why are sunsets red?
Light from sun passes through more atmosphere, even more blue light is scattered allowing reds to go straight to your eyes.
Crepuscular Rays
Beams from of light from the sun caused by scattering of light of particles in the atmosphere such as aerosols.
Trasmission
When light passes though a substance it is transmitted. Denser materials slow the light and bend it.
Refraction
When light is bended. Depends on material density and the angle light enters the medium.
Bigger/Squashed Sun
Refraction causes light rays from the lower part of the sun or moon to bend more than the upper part, making them appear to ‘flatten out’.
Types of Twilight
Civil twilight lasts from Sunset till the sun is 6° below the horizon.
Astronomical Twilight lasts from sunset till the sky is completely dark and observation of the faintest astronomical stars is possible.
What causes the green flash?
the atmosphere acts as a weak prism, refracting light into various colors, green is the peak frequency emitted by the sun and is what gets through the atmosphere the most so we see a green flash.
Mirages
Inferior Marriage, lower and upside-down
Superior, Objects upward but right side up.
Fata Morgana
Layers of different density flipping image before it gets to eye point.
Sundogs
bright spots left and right of sun
Sun pillar
light extending upwards from the sun
Rainbows
Primary and secondary facing rainbow with sun behind you
Vivian Hailstone
South Dakota, Largest Hailstone
Air pressure
Pressure of the atmosphere measured above a point or location
glaciation
water converting to ice in a cloud
Ice process
Bergeron Process
cold clouds
Cloud formation
To get droplets to grow environment RH needs to be slightly higher than 100%
1 million droplets in a raindrop
Not condensation, collision coalescence. (Different sized droplets) and warm cloud process.
Range of droplet sizes
cloud thickness
updrafts of clouds
electric charge of rain drops
Rime Ice
Forms when supercooled water dropplets freeze instantly in contact with a surface.
Billow clouds
Formed when wind speed is lower on bottom and high on top. This is known as speed sheer. Other shear known as directional sheer.
Geostrophic Wind
When the PGF and CF are balanced,
Forces that influence wind
- PGF
- Coriolis Force, Low to high
- Friction slows down Coriolis force
- centripetal force difference between PGF and CF
Types of Snowflakes
Plate, Column, Dendrite, Needle, the most common is irregular.
Pressure gradient force, Coriolis, Centripetal
Pressure gradient goes from high to low, Coriolis goes low to high, centripetal force is the difference between the two.
