Lecture 20: Atmosphere 2 Flashcards
What does Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures say?
The mixture of gasses can be expressed as the sum of partial pressures and this represents their concentration
How is Latent Heat affected when going from condensation of water vapor to liquid vapour?
Latent heat is released
How is Melting of Ice Negative Feedback?
The melting of ice causes the surrounding air to cool, buffering the melting
What is Saturation Pressure?
The partial pressure of water at saturation in the air
What does Saturation Pressure represent?
The maximum amount of water vapor that air can hold when in equilibrium with liquid water or ice at a particular temperature
What is Relative Humidity?
The partial pressure of water divided by the saturation pressure
What can occur if relative humidity is 100%?
Condensation can occur
What can change Relative humidity?
The partial pressure of water vapor and or the temperature
How does Relative Humidity change as the temperature goes up and water vapor stays the same?
Relative humidity will decrease while temperature increases
What is the Adiabatic Lapse rate?
The rate at which the atmosphere’s temperature decreases with elevation or altitude in the atmosphere
What is Nucleation energy?
When the first drop of condensation requires energy rather than releasing latent heat
What can Nucleation result in?
Clouds and condensation
What forms instead of ice with High Nucleation energy and why?
High nucleation energy inhibits ice formation between certain temperatures so instead Supercooled water droplets form
What do Supercooled water droplets in high nucleation energy release?
Vapor that condenses on ice crystals, and clouds that can then fall as snow
When do Clouds form?
When moist and warm air rises and becomes cooler in Adiabatic cooling
What are the four ways of cloud formation?
- Density lifting
- Frontal lifting
- Orographic lifting
- Convergence lifting
Why does Density lifting occur?
Because warm, lower density air rises and expands
When does Frontal Lifting occur?
When the movement of air masses drives warm air over cold air
What occurs in Orographic Lifting?
Mountain ranges force air masses to rise causing clouds to form
What occurs in Convergence lifting?
Air masses collide forcing them to rise and form clouds
What are the 3 major cloud types?
Cumulus, Stratus, and Cirrus
What are clouds mainly classified by?
Their shape and altitude/position
What do Cirrus clouds look like?
Wispy summer clouds
What do Stratus clouds look like?
Low cloudy day clouds
