ENVIRSC 1A03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Tor Bergeron, Ice Crystals, Vapor Pressure
25 Sep 2016
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Precipitation: any form of water that falls from a cloud and reaches the ground. This includes both liquid and solid water crystals that fall from the atmosphere to the ground. Driven by the same processes that drive cloud formation. The process may start quickly for example through convection heating and dissipation. Most precipitation is formed through accretion and on many occasions, rain begins as ice. Warm clouds have an overall temperature profile above 0 c. As it rises it cools, forcing condensation creating droplets of water in the cloud. As more condensation is added the drops grow until they reach a diameter of 50-100 m micro meters. The droplets are carried aloft, in the rising cloud. They collide with each other and coalesce (merge), building up to a size of about 1000-2000 m, the size of raindrops. They become unstable and break into smaller drops, while falling (raindrops).
