Stability Flashcards
What are the characteristics of stable air?
Poor visibility; steady precipitation; stratus clouds.
Which would decrease the stability of an air mass?
Warming from below.
What is a characteristic of stable air?
Stratiform clouds.
Which would increase the stability of an air mass?
Cooling from below.
Which is a characteristic of stable air?
Restricted visibility.
Which is a characteristic typical of a stable air mass?
Continuous precipitation.
What type weather can one expect from moist, unstable air, and very warm surface temperature?
Strong updrafts and cumulonimbus clouds.
A moist, unstable air mass Is characterized by
Cumuliform clouds and showery precipitation.
If clouds form as a result of very stable, moist air
being forced to ascend a mountain slope, the clouds will be
stratus type with little vertical development and little or no turbulence.
The formation of either predominantly stratiform or predominantly cumuliform clouds is dependent
upon the
stability of the air being lifted.
When an air mass is stable, which of these conditions is most likely to exist?
Smoke, dust, haze, etc., concentrated at the lower levels with resulting poor visibility.
Which is true regarding the development of convective circulation?
Cool air must sink to force the warm air upward.
When conditionally unstable air with high- moisture content and very warm surface temperature is forecast, one can expect what type of weather?
Strong updrafts and cumulonimbus clouds.
Convective circulation patterns associated with sea breezes are caused by
land and absorbing and radiating heat faster than the water.
From which measurement of the atmosphere can stability be determined?
The ambient lapse rate.
The difference found by subtracting the
temperature of a parcel of air theoretically lifted from the surface to 500 millibars and the existing
temperature at 500 millibars is called the
lifted index.
The conditions necessary for the formation of stratiform clouds are a lifting action and
stable, moist air.
