MET 260 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Atmospheric Circulation, Thunderstorm
Document Summary
The (cid:494)wind(cid:495) is comprised of one huge mass of turbulent. Eddies- spinning globs of air that have a history of their own (but theyre traceable) We arrange circulations by size- smallest to biggest. Small, seemingly random motions (tiny eddies) cause smoke to move in many different directions and speeds. Form by convection or flow past obstructions. A large scale circulation will transport the smoke downstream. Many minutes, hours, to a whole day. Local winds (coats and mountains), thunderstorm, tornadoes, and small tropical storms. We only see circulations around pressure centers on the surface weather maps. Dominate hundreds to thousand of square kilometers. Life span of days to even weeks. Sometimes synoptic and global scales are combined and called the. These are categories scientists apply to weather features. The size of these features may vary- some features may fit in more than one category. Fronts- for example- are long and narrow features.
