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Atmo 201 Exam 2
Chapters 6-8 of Meteorology Today
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Adiabatic Process | When rising air cools and expands and sinking air warms and compresses. Process is reversable if an air parcel doesn't become saturated. |
| Stability | When an air parcel is moved and returns to its original position |
| Dry-Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DALR) | 9.8 Degrees Celsius per kilometer |
| Moist-Adiabatic Lapse Rate (MALR) | 6 Degrees Celsius per kilometer |
| Environmental Lapse Rate (ELR) | Measured by radiosondes or predicted by models, determines whether atmosphere is stable or unstable |
| Absolute Stability | When the environmental lapse rate is lower than the moist adiabatic lapse rate, often occurs at night |
| Absolute Instability | When the ELR is greater than the DALR, rarely happens, when it does its near the surface |
| Conditional Stability | ELR is in-between MALR and DALR, if a parcel is saturated it will rise, if it is unsaturated, it will sink |
| Neutral Stability | ELR is equal to DALR, unsaturated parcel won't rise or sink, they'll stay in the same place |
| way to make the atmosphere less stable | Warming air near the ground, cooling air higher in the atmosphere, lifting a layer of the atmosphere |
| Way to make the atmosphere more stable | Cooling air near the ground, warming air aloft, sinking a layer of the atmosphere |
| Forces for rising motion | Daytime heating, rising along topography, convergence of air masses, warm or cold fronts |
| Lifting Condensation Level (LCL) | Level where air parcel reaches saturation, condensation occurs, cloud base, parcel changes from DALR to MALR, Higher the dew point, lower the LCL and vice versa |
| Level of Free Convection (LFC) | Level where air will continue to rise without a force acting on it |
| Equilibrium Level (EL) | Level above the EL where air will stop rising freely, causes anvil on thunderstorms |
| Orographic Clouds | Clouds created when mountain lifts air parcel to LCL and LFC |
| Rain shadow Effect | If mountain lifts air parcel to LCL, it will be warmer on the other side of the mountain due to the release of latent heat |
| Lenticular Clouds | When waves occur in the atmosphere above a mountain, clouds can form at the top of the waves |
| Subsidence Inversion | Sinking motion caused by high pressure results in a layer of warm air above a layer of cold air, creating a "cap" which stops convection |
| Changing Clouds | Stratus clouds can change to cumulus clouds if the top is cooled, and the bottom is warmed |
| Cloud Droplets | Liquid water but much smaller than rain drops, about .02 mm |
| Vapor Pressure | Pressure exerted by water pressure in the air |
| Saturation Vapor Pressure | Vapor Pressure where air becomes saturated, the higher the temperature the higher the saturation vapor pressure |
| Curvature Effect | Saturation Pressure is greater over a curved surface than a flat surface |
| Collision Coalescence | Warm process, as large droplets fall, they collide with other droplets and stick together, causing them to coalesce and grow |
| Bergeron Process | cold process, since vapor pressure is higher around water droplets than ice, water vapor will move from the droplets to the ice nuclei, growing the ice nuclei at the expense of the droplets |
| Cloud seeding | Injecting cloud with small particles to act as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, cloud already needs to be there, dry ice and silver iodide used |
| Rain | In layered cloud, falls at a steady and uniform rate, in cumulonimbus, none in updraft and heavy in downdraft |
| Snow | Cloud temperature, vapor pressure, and ground temp affects type of snowflake |
| Wet Snow | Close to freezing temp, 6 in of snow = 1 in of rain |
| Dry Snow | Much colder temps, 20 in of snow = 1 in of rain, very good insulator for plants |
| Sleet | Snowflakes melt and then refreeze before hitting the ground |
| Freezing Rain | Snow melts but is super cooled and freezes on contact when it hits the ground |
| Rime | Freezing Rain occurring in fog |
| Hail | Formed in deep cumulonimbus clouds, small piece of ice grows when around super cooled droplets, requires strong updraft to keep it near super cooled droplets |
| Pressure Gradient | Causes air to move |
| Divergence | High pressure causing air to move apart |
| Convergence | Low pressure causing air to come together |
| Sea Level Reduction | Changing pressure readings of pressure gages to what the pressure would be at sea level |
| Isobar Pressure Map | Shows pressure differences with Mean Sea Level Pressure |
| Contour Pressure Map | Shows pressure differences by keeping the pressure constant and varying at what altitude they occur at |
| Pressure Gradient Force (PGF) | Cause of wind, stronger gradient or close isobars/contour lines = stronger winds |
| Coriolis Force (CF) | Acts on wind 90 degrees to the right of the direction it is moving in the northern hemisphere, faster the wind the stronger the force pulls to the right |
| Geostrophic wind | When PGF and CF are balanced, winds will blow parallel to Isobars |
| Gradient Wind | When PGF, CF, and centrifugal force are balanced, wind will still blow parallel to curved isobars |
| Winds near surface | blow about 30 degrees across isobars due to friction slowing the wind down, and Coriolis force being reduced due to slower speed |
| Surface Low Pressure | Causes wind to spiral in toward pressure center |
| Surface High Pressure | Causes wind to spiral away from pressure center |
| Cyclostrophic Wind | Very strong and small pressure gradient, like a tornado or drain, no Coriolis Force |
| Hydrostatic Balance | Vertical Pressure Gradient Force and gravity balance out, air parcel doesn't move up or down |
| Mercurial Barometer | Air pressure pushes mercury up glass tube |
| Aneroid Barometer | Uses Aneroid Cells which compress or expand depending on pressure |
| Electronic Barometer | Uses quartz to determine air pressure |
| Wind Vane | Measures wind direction |
| Cup Anemometer | Measures wind speed |
| Aerovane | Combines wind vane and anemometer to measure both wind speed and direction |
| Sonic | Uses sound to measure wind speed and direction |
Created by:
cbald19
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