GEOG 111 1st Edition Lecture 22 Outline of Last Lecture I. Most missed questions from exam 2II. Controls on the ELR and convectionIII. Forced lifa. Orographic lifingb. Frontal lifc. Low level convergenced. Upper level divergenceOutline of Current Lecture I. Cloudsa. Cloud typesII. Precipitationa. Two processesi. BergeronCurrent LectureI. Cloudsa. Cloud attributesi. Distinguished on basis of altitude, pattern, and ability to produce precipitationii. Height:1. Cirro – high level (always cold)2. Alto – mid-level iii. Pattern:1. Cumulo – vertically developed2. Strato – stratified; confined to a single level; layerediv. Precipitation:1. Nimbo – producing precipitationv. Temperature:1. Warm clouds (T> -10 degrees C)a. Almost entirely made of liquid2. Cold clouds (T< - 10 degrees C)a. Ice in cloudsb. At -20 degrees C all iceb. Cloud typesi. Cirrus- high, cold, wispy ii. Cirrocumulus- high, fine grained appearance, bubble-like clouds interwoven withblue skyThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.1. Rising motion with cloud elements, sinking motion surrounding cloud elements2. Variations in vertical and horizontal air motions (would make for a bumpy plane ride)iii. Cirrostratus - high, very thin, instead of streaks it is covering the whole sky in a layered fashion1. Ring-like appearance around the sun2. Mini-rainbow; diffraction of light (sun dogs)iv. Contrails – high, trail of cloud consisting of liquid water1. Condensation and largely deposition2. Water vapor comes out and instantaneously turns to ice crystals3. The relative humidity is close to 100%v. Altocumulus – middle clouds, warm, similar to cirrocumulus just lower in the columnvi. Altostratus – middle clouds, warm, thicker, lower in atmosphere so block out sunlight more than cirrostratus1. Ring around sunvii. Stratus- low level, stratified, effectively block out the sun1. Can produce drizzle, but not measurableviii. Nimbostratus- low, thicker, darker, producing precipitation1. Streaked appearance ix. Stratocumulus – low, stratified, not thick, connected with a stable atmosphere (air doesn’t want to move vertically)x. Cumulus – low level, unstable atmosphere (air is lifing), daytime heating when the relative humidity is high, vertical development, late morning hours in Carolina summerxi. Cumulonimbus – largest cloud, dark bottom, thunderstormII. Precipitationa. Requires the development of droplets/snowflakes that are 100 times bigger than cloud water droplets/ice crystalsb. Most of the time, clouds don’t have precipitationc. Two processes for growing hydrometeors (scientific term for precipitation)i. Bergeron – grows ice crystals through multiple processes involving all three states of water1. Requires a cold cloud where ice crystals, water vapor and super-cooled water coexist2. Processesa. Deposition of vapor ice crystal growthb. Freezing also occurs but deposition is the dominant processc. Evaporation of cloud water vaporsi. RH < 100%d. So ice crystals grow at the expense of cloud watere. Rising air motions keep growing snowflake alof until it becomestoo heavyi. Snowflake gets so heavy that it falls against the gradient melts and falls to Earth as rain or if the atmosphere iscold enough, as
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