CU-Boulder ATOC 1070 - Lab4 (2 pages)

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Sarah Rose ATOC 1070 Lab 4 Surface Weather Observations Ian W Jeannie N Mike M Objectives 34 146 30 Question 1 The measured average sea level pressure is 1013 25 hPa Sea level pressure is able to fluctuate so looking at our data we can see that only the Denver station was measuring at sea level pressure 1014 9 mb where ATOC 1070 lab and NCAR Mesa lab both measure station pressure You can tell this because ATOC and NCAR had pressures of 837 3 mb and 860 0 mb we know those aren t sea level pressures because they are significantly less due to the altitude of the station To convert the NCAR Mesa Lab pressure to sea level pressure you take the elevation of the station which is 1885m and multiply it by 0 10 1885 m 0 10 188 5 m next you add that 188 5 to the actual station pressure 860 188 5 1048 5 hPa And we already know the sea level pressure of the station pressure measured in class which is 1020 6 mb Now we know all three stations sea level pressures Station hPa ATOC Lab 1020 6 Denver 1014 9 NCAR Mesa Lab 1048 5 Comparing there pressures we see that Denver has the least pressure and NCAR Mesa Lab had the highest Denver lab also had the pressure closest to the average sea level pressure 1013 25 hPa Question 2 The two letter abbreviation for Altostratus is As Altostratus clouds are formed by the rising of a large air mass that condenses into a cloud They can produce light precipitation Altostratus most often takes the form of a featureless sheet of cloud but can be wavy undulatus as a result of wind shear through the cloud It can also be fragmented fibratus with clear sky visible which often signals the approach of a weakened or upper level warm front Altostratus are caused by stable atmospheres and have moderate moisture content Warm fronts typically cause altostratus clouds Summary Conclusion In this lab we used the psychrometer anemometer our best judgment to gather information we would later use to complete a station model We successfully gathered the data from the