Water Flashcards
Hurricane
- intense, small, circular cyclone
- forms over warm ocean
- moist air rises in storm
- adiabatic cooling
- rain is created
Tornado
- small intense cyclones
- descend from cumulonimbus cloud to ground
- very low pressure center, very high wind speed
Supercell
- long lived organized thunderstorm
- maintained by strong rotating updraft
Supercell cloud
-parent cumulonimbus cloud
Mesocyclone
-rotating updraft in supercell cloud
Funnel Cloud
Rotating Funnel -shaped extending down from base of supercell cloud
Tornado
-funnel cloud that touches ground surface
Common Tornado Season
-spring and summer
Transpiration
- evaporation of water -at surface of cells in leaves
- loss of water vapour through stomata
- water that evaporates from the leaves draws water from the roots
Transpiration Rate
-requires water, energy, humidity gradient, and unsaturated atmosphere
Transpiration and Temperature
- increased!
- evaporation and diffusion go faster
Transpiration and Humidity
- decreased
- diffusion out of leaf slows because air surrounding is moist
Transpiration and Wind Speed
- increased!
- wind removes water vapour, increasing diffusion rate
Transpiration and Light Intensity
- increased!
- stomata opens wider
Potential Evapotranspiration
- amount of water that would evaporate and transpire under unlimited soil moisture conditions
- maximum capacity
Actual evapotrasnpiration
- amount of water transformed into water vapour and released into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration
- water use
AET = PET means…
-constant and sufficient water supply
AET
- not enough available water
- produces deficit
Precipitation > and < PET
- surplus if >
- deficit if
Water Cycle: Input & Output
- precipitation is input
- evapotranspiration is output
Water Cycle: Storage
-atmosphere, oceans, surface water, soil water, groundwater
Water Cycle: Transfers
-currents, runoffs, streams, infiltration, percolation
Interception Storage Capacity
-max amount of rain that can be held by vegetation at any time
Interception loss
-water that is evaporated during the storage time
throughfall
-precipitation reaching the ground surface directly
Groundwater
- water which occupies the saturation zone (23% of global freshwater)
- upper surface of this zone is the water table
- above that is the zone of aeration (unsaturated zone)
Groundwater and Streamflow: Effluent Conditions
-water table is higher than the stream channel
Groundwater : Influent COnditions
-water table is lower than stream channel
hydrology
-science of water at and below Earth’s surface
fluvial (river) systems: Driving forces
-gravity and insolation
Gradient of a Stream
-drop in elevation per unit distance
Steep gradient means the stream velocity is…
higher
Base Level (Stream)
-level below which a stream cannot erode its valley
Q(Runoff) is..
the streamflow volume passing a point in a given unit of time
Hydrograph
-graph of stream discharge over time for a specific location
Base Flow
-regular dry weather discharge
Stream Stage
-height of water surface above an established altitude where the stage is zero
Discharge increase means..
-stream width, depth and velocity increase
Discharge increase happens because
-the distance downstream increases or
due to a rainstorm
storm hydrograph
- graph of the change in discharge due to a specific storm
- varies with intensity of the storm and nature of catchment area
Lakes
-bodies of water that occupy depressions in land surface
Natural and Anthroprogenic processes affect water ways by..
- create depressions to form lake
- obstruct flow of streams
Lake Inflow
- precipitation
- overland flow
- interflow
- seepage from groundwater
- inlet streams
Lake Outflow
- evaporation
- lake bed drainage
- outlet streams
Lakes disappear due to
- drainage of lake water (outlet channels)
- excessive evaporation
- accumulation of sediments from inlet streams and overland flow
Limnology
study of physical, chemical, biological, and geological characteristics of inland water
Oceanography
-study of phys, chem, bio, and geological characteristics of oceans
Ocean Physical Structure
- mixing zone (2%)
- thermocline (18%)
- deep ocean cold zone (80%)
