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Meteorology Final
Optics, Tornadoes, Lake Effect Snow, Winter Weather, and Hurricanes
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What can happen to sunlight (or moonlight) as it passes through air molecules and/or raindrops or ice crystals? | reflection, scattering of light, refraction, or absorbtion. |
| what is refraction? | light is bent from original course when traveling into something with a different density |
| When you have freaction, you get... | color separation |
| Why does an object appear white? | the object reflects all visible wavelengths of light equally |
| _____, _________, __________, and _________ of light affect the amount of reflection, refraction, and absorption that take place | size, albido, density, and angle, of light affect the amount of reflection, refraction, and absorption that take place. |
| Why do objects appear black? | object reflects no visible wavelengths. It absorbs everything. |
| why does an object appear to exhibit a particular color? | object reflects a certain wavelength more than the others |
| Why is the sky blue? | Na and O2 scatter more blue wavelengths to our eyes. it is their size that allowes them to scatter the shorter wavelengths . it has nothing to do with the water vapor in the sky. |
| When you look at the sky, you are witnessing... | rayleigh scattering |
| Why doesn't the sky appear purple, then? | because the sun puts out more blue than violet. |
| Why does the sky turn orange/red when the sun is at the horizon? | when the sun is lower the angle is bigger and the light has to go through more atmosphere. the BIVS are scattered away, so the air molecules are forced to scatter rays to our eyes. |
| Why are clouds white? | since liquid water or ice is bigger than air molecules, they scatter all the wavelengths equally to our eyes. |
| Since liquid water or ice is bigger than air molecules, they scatter all the wavelengths equally to our eyes. This is called... | Mie scattering. |
| Why are the bases of clouds darker? | because less light makes it through the cloud to the base to be scattered from there to your eyes. The light is used up as it passes through the cloud. |
| The thicker the cloud, the ________ the base. | darker. |
| Ice crystals have how many sides? | six. |
| What are the two forms of ice crystals that are important for optics? | columns and plates. |
| What plays a role in the type of ice crystals that are formed? | temperature and relative humidity |
| a column looks like... | a stick of chalk |
| a plate looks like... | a hexagonal dinner plate. |
| Smaller (<20 um) ice crystals are easily blown by the wind and... | become randomly oriented as they fall. |
| large plates fall with large faces..... | parallel to the ground. |
| ______ _________ fall with long axis parallel to the ground. | large columns |
| How does a halo happen? | light refracts as it passes through small, randomly oriented ice crystals. |
| what is the most common angle of a halo? | 22 degrees. |
| Why do the halos appear white? | random orientation typically prevents color separation from being seen so the ring appears white |
| What is parhelia? | sun dogs |
| what are sun dogs? | a pair of tiny rainbows 22 degrees on sides of sun. |
| What must happen to have sundogs? | the sun must be near the horizon, it must be low. To get sundogs, light must be refracted through large PLATES. |
| Why is red always on the inside of sundogs? | because rays are bent the least there |
| With what cloud is it best to see halos and sundogs? | cirrostatus. |
| how do sun pillars occur? | when sunlight is reflected off the bottom of LARGE ice plates. |
| How does a subsun occur? | when sunlight is reflected off the top of large ice plates. viewers MUST be above the ice plates to see it |
| how do rainbows work? | rain is either moving in or out while the sun is showing. it has to be morning or afternoon. face away from the sun to see the rainbow. raindrops refract light b/c of density change and then reflect internally where it is refracted again on the way out. |
| Color separation occurs on ____________ | initial refraction |
| what order do the colors go in on a rainbow, from outside to inside? | roygbiv |
| if there is a secondary bow, what order will the colors of the rainbow be, from outside to inside? | vibgyor (reversed) |
| What produces a mirage? | speed of light differs in air of different densities |
| what plays a key role in mirages? | temperature |
| does light travel more slowly or faster in denser (colder) air? | slowly |
| does light travel more slowly or faster in less dense (warmer) air? | faster |
| speed differences result in.. | refraction of light |
| during the early morning hours, colder air is near the ground, which means the temperature is.. | inverted. |
| what are the two types of mirages? | inferior mirage and superior mirage |
| this type of mirage occurs when temperatures decrease rapidly with height | inferior. |
| how do inferior mirages work? | light is refracted upward so image appears below the true position |
| why do mirages shimmer? | convection |
| what type of mirage occurs when temps increase rapidly with height (inversion)? | superior. |
| how do superior mirages work? | light is refracted downward so image appears above true position |
| What is it called when sun rays peek thru broken cloud deck? | crepuscular rays |
| how can you see the individual beams of light of crepuscular rays? | light is scattered by dust and haze. |
| what is a glory? | when there are colors of light around an aircraft |
| What are three things that make a thunderstorm severe? | Wind over 58 mph, hail bigger than 3/4 in, and tornadoes |
| what is a tornado? | verticle column or rapidly roating winds that reaches the ground around small, intense, low pressure area. |
| Where are you most likely to get tornadic development? | in between updraft and downdraft. |
| what are the four steps leading to tornadoes? | 1. super wind shear 2. updraft and downdraft tilt the rotation vertically, 3. stretching of air column causes wind speeds to increase (ice skater), this is also where the mesocyclone and wall cloud form, 4. transfer of energy down to smaller scale tornado |
| What are suction vortices? | small tornadic twists that dance around the main funnel |
| tornado intensity is measured by... | the fujita scale |
| who invented the intensity scale of tornadoes? | ted fujita. |
| How can you detect a tornado? | radar imagery, reflective imagery, doppler imagery, and hook echo |
| what is hook echo? | indicates the presence of mesocyclone as its counter clockwise wind blows precip around its westward and southern flank |
| do hooks on radar guarantee a tornado? | no, just a mesocyclone |
| what is larko's triangle? | area where severe tstorms tend to develop |
| what composes larko's triangle? | warm and cold fronts form two sides of the triangle, and the third side is formed by the third isobar outside of the storm. |
| a tornado watch comes from.. | oklahoma |
| a tornado warning comes from... | the local office |
| what causes lake effect snow? | instability |
| what is frictional convergence? | rough surface of land pushes air upward |
| what is residence time and what does it have to do with lake effect snow? | residence time is how long the air will be over open water, and the longer the air lingers over the water, the better. |
| how fast should the wind be for good moisture pick up for LE snow? | 10-20 mph |
| What should you check temperature wise for LE snow? | check the difference in temps between the lake and the 850 mb level. when the difference is greater than 13 degrees, your chances are good for LE snow. |
| How much directional wind shear should there be for LE snow? | none. No directional wind shear is best for LE snow. |
| You get multiple bands over a lake when.... | air passes over the short axis of the lake and there is no wind change with height |
| if the wind comes across the long axis of the lake, you get... | a single band, which is more severe |
| What is lake enhanced snow? | it is produced by upward motion associated with a mid latitude storm that has additional moisture to work with thanks to the lake. |
| What are four types of wintery precipitation? | snow, sleet, freezing rain, and graupel |
| When estimating the liquid equivalent from snowfall, ten inches of snow equals.. | 1 in liquid |
| what is sleet? | balls of ice that bounce when they hit the ground. snow melts and refreezes before hitting the ground |
| what is freezing rain? | liquid that freezes on contact with the ground and/or surface |
| what is graupel? | when supercooled water bonds with a snowflake |
| what is a Nor' Easter? | a mid latitude storm that moves along the east coast. |
| Sometimes, Nor' Easters intensify very rapidly over coastal waters due to.... | increased thermal gradient |
| What shape are noreasters? | comma shaped |
| What are the criteria for a blizzard? | 3 or more consecutive hours of winds greater than 35 mph, snow that reduces visibility to less than 1/4 mile, and temperatures below twenty miles per hour |
| What are tropical cyclones? | a group of thunderstorms organized so as to efficiently make use of their mutual condensational warming as an energy source |
| What do tropical cyclones need to form and prosper? | warm water column down to 300ft, weak wind shear, significant coriolis force |
| what is the lifecycle of a tropical cyclone/hurricane? | tropical depression, tropical storm, and, finally, a hurricane |
| what is a tropical depression? | the first step to becoming a hurricane, it has winds between 23-29 mph circulating around low pressure associated with a group of thunderstorms. -no name. |
| what is a tropical storm? | the second step to becoming a hurricane, it has winds of 39-73 miles per hour, circulating around a low pressure with thunderstorms forming more of a circular cloud mass -gets name |
| what is the biggest characteristic that a hurricane has? | winds of over 74 miles per hour |
| What are the three parts of a hurricane? | the eye, the eye wall, and the spiral bands. |
| what is the eye? | air sinks with in the eye. nice weather in there because of the sinking air. this is the part of the storm with the lowest pressure. |
| what is the eye wall? | group of thunderstorms forming circular pattern around the eye. this is where the highest pressure and the strongest winds are. |
| what are spiral bands? | they are tail-like trails of thunderstorms coming off of the eye wall. |
| what is the average size of a hurricane? | about 700 miles across, from spiral band, to spiral band. |
| What is a storm surge? | a rapid rise in sea level as a storm makes land fall |
| what causes a storm surge? | pressure effect, on-shore wind effect, and other considerations such as tidal range and steepness of slope. |
| what is the pressure effect? | low pressure on sea surface allows water levels to rise. |
| what is on-shore wind effect? | strong winds blowing toward the coast push water ashore. strongest on the right side of the eye. |
| what is the name of the hurricane model simulator? | the SLOSH model. |
| how do we measure hurricane intensity? | the saffir-simpson scale |
| how high does the saffir-simpson scale go? | from 1-5 |
| what steers tropical cyclones/hurricanes? | geostrophic winds |
| What is the bermuda high? | a semi-permanent high in the atlantic. it can have a profound effect on the paths of storms |
| Why do hurricanes weaken upon making landfall? | friction, lower evaporation rates over land means less latent heat released at higher levels, and there is no warm water for fuel. |
| Where is the national hurricane center located? | Miami |
| When is the atlantic hurricane season, and when is the peak? | june 1 to nov 30, and the peak is september 10 |
| On average, there are about _____ named storms a year in the atlantic and about _________ usually become hurricanes | 10, 5 |
Created by:
akfehr
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