ATOC 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Silver Iodide, Radio Wave, Middle Latitudes

• School: McGill University
• Department: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
• Course: ATOC 181
• Professor: Andreas Zuend

Document Summary

- topics: 1) part a: precipitation processes: cloud droplet growth to raindrop sizes, ice particle formation and growth; 2) part b: precipitation types: rain; snow; ice pellets, graupel, hail; = as any form of water (liquid/solid) that falls from a cloud and reaches the ground; - clouds are required for precipitation (p), but not all clouds make precipitation; Fact: clouds can form, linger for many days, and never produce precipitation. A: essentially cloud droplets need to grow bigger by some mechanism to cause p: depends on many factors (cloud width & thickness, t, internal cloud motions). - clouds can be warm (liquid); cold (ice); or mixed-phase (ice and liquid particles: physical states of water strongly influence precipitation formation processes. Cloud droplets are much < raindrops: suspended: too light to overcome air drag and updrafts, need grow to precipitation size (rain drops) to overcome air drag and fall out of cloud.