GPHY 102 Lecture 10: Atmospheric Moisture and Precipitation Cont. & Weather Systems
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Document Summary
Up to today"s reading (chap 7; weather systems) Vertically developed clouds (transcend layers of troposphere, low to middle to high) "particles of liquid water or ice that fall from the atmosphere and may reach the ground: cloud droplets grow by condensation up to 50-100 um after which they begin to coalesce to form precipitation. Precipitation processes: processes which cause air to move upwards and then cool to the dewpoint, orographic effect, convergence, convection, cyclonic (frontal lifting) Orographic lifting: air forced up over mountain, expands, cools and clouds form (if enough moisture, precipitation normally occurs on windward side, on leeward side, air warms through compression, and suspended water is evaporated. Convergent lifting: air flowing from different directions into same low pressure area converges and displaces air upwards, especially prominent at itcz where trade winds converge, towering cumulonimbus clouds develop and are augmented via latent heat transfer during condensation.
