GEOG 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Jet Stream, Polar Front, Solar Irradiance
Document Summary
Reminders: no class wednesday, take home weather forecasting lab do in lab next week, office hours 10-12am wednesday. Fundamental controls of weather: insolation imbalances -> large scale motion -> water patterns, example. Polar front jet stream separates air masses. Rossby waves cause change in weather: sinking air of sub tropical high = dry conditions, itcz = band of rising air. Air mass: body of air with uniform temperature and moisture characteristics, most abbreviated using two letters. First corresponds to moisture (c for continental or maritime) Second corresponds to temperature (t for tropical or p for polar) Third is based on region (equatorial or arctic: table (has appeared on exam before) Warm (continental polar) ct (continental tropical) mt (maritime tropical), e (equatorial: air mass modification. Air mass is modified when it leaves its source region. Lifting air masses cool adiabatically by expansion (pressure only) to reach dew point temps.
