2. https://earthscience-in-
the-
nationalparks.wikispace
Orographic Lifting
s.com/Death+Valley
• As elevated terrain act like barrier to
air, orographic lifting occurs.
• Clouds and precipitation are created when air
goes up a terrain, then adiabatic cooling
occurs.
• when air gets to the leeward side, most of the
moisture is gone, if air descend it make
condensation and precipitation unlikely.
3. Frontal wedging
• Frontal wedging is when cool air and warm
collide
• Weather producing fronts have to do with
specific storm system such as middle latitude
cyclones
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/BRG/ODP/ODP/LE
G_SUMM/171A/leg171A.html
4. Convergence
• Convergence is when different air masses
collide and forces air to be lifted upward.
• Takes place in lower atmosphere.
• Convergence leads to adiabatic cooling and
clouds forming.
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/gui
des/mtr/cld/dvlp/cnvrg.rxml
5. Localized Convective Lifting
• When unequal heating of Earth’s surface causes
pockets of air to be warmed more than surrounding
air.
• Thermal are warmer parcels of air that will rise
because they are less dense.
• When warm parcels of air rise above condensation
clouds form and clouds create mid-day rain .
http://santasusana.org/pakelly/ES9CP/ES9%2
0clouds.htm
6. Stability
• Stable air stays in the same position while unstable
air will rise until it reaches an altitude were the
surrounding clouds are the same temperature.
• Most stable position is temp. inversion
• Air temp. increase with height because of radiation
cooling off of earths surface
http://ocw.usu.edu/Forest__Rang
e__and_Wildlife_Sciences/Wildlan
d_Fire_Management_and_Plannin
g/Unit_7__Atmospheric_Stability_
and_Instability_1.html-
skinless_view.html
7. Condensation
• Takes place when water vapor changes to a
liquid in the air.
• Air must be saturated for condensation to
happen.
• In forms of dew, fog, or clouds.
http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_conde
nsation.htm
8. Types of clouds
• Classified by form and height.
• Cirrus clouds-thin, white, seen in patches
• Stratus- clouds that appear to look like sheets
that cover the sky
• Cumulus- look like dooms, consist of round
independent masses
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/as
tronomy/planets/earth/clouds/
9. High clouds
• 6000 meters and higher
• Cirrus, cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus
• Thin and white and often made up of ice
crystals
http://10.85.0.4:8080/ibreports/ibp/bp.html
?fn=Students&fp=1&ip=10.182.1.107&ibip=1
0.85.0.4&ldu=0&re=0&bu=commons.wikime
dia.org/wiki/File:High_Clouds_seen_from_M
aui.JPG&bc=Website%20contains%20prohibit
ed%20Adult%20Oriented%20content.
10. Middle Clouds
• Forms from 2000 to 6000 meters
• Types alto cirrus, altostratus, and
altocumulus
• Altocumulus is larger and denser while
altostratus clouds create a uniform of
grayish sheets that cover the sky with
sunlight seen through.
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/flte
nv3.htm
11. Low Clouds
• Forms 2000 meters and below
• Types Stratus, Stratocumulus, and
Nimbostratus
• Cloud are fog like and cover most of the
sky, and sometime produce light precipitation
http://www.capetownskies.com/clouds-low.htm
12. Clouds of Vertical Development
• Clouds that do not fit into
any height range, base is in
low height range while
everything else is extended
upwards.
• Clouds are associated with
unstable air.
• Cumulus clouds may grow
upwards and form clouds
with great vertical range.
http://www.pilotfriend.com/a
• End result cumulonimbus v_weather/meteo/clouds.htm
clouds with thunderstorms .
13. Fog
http://www.photoshopstar.c
om/photo-effects/how-
create-fog-effect-
• Clouds and fog have similar photoshop/
appearance and structure.
• Fog is a cloud that has its
base really close to the
ground.
• Fog forms from the result of
radiation cooling,
movement of air over a cold
surface, and when water
vapor is added to bring
saturation.
14. Warm Cloud
• Collision-coalescence process form rain droplets in warm
clouds
• It is when water absorbing particles remove water vapor from
the air at relative humidity less than 100% forming large
droplets
• When the droplets move through clouds they collide with
smaller droplets.
http://www.capespirit.com/capewestco
astwallpapers.html
15. Cold Cloud Precipitation
• Bergeron process relies on
super cooling and super
saturated
• Super saturation is air that is
saturated with the respect to
water
• Super cooled is when water
will not freeze at o degrees
Celsius but at 40 degrees
Celsius, but it will freeze
http://www.liveweatherblogs.co
when it hits a solid m/weatherblog/5568/Clouds-
Precipitation-as-earth-s-
thermostat
16. Rain and Snow
• Rain-drops of water that the
diameter is at least 0.5 MM
• If the temp. is higher than 4
degrees Celsius, then snow
flake will melt and become
rain before it hits the ground.
http://kohd.com/page/21358
• Low temperature snow makes 7
up six side ice crystal while
temp. warmer than -5
degrees Celsius will become
large heavy lumps.
17. Sleet, Glaze, and Hail
• Sleet forms when a layer of air
with temperature of freezing, lay
over a subfreezing layer near the
ground.
• Glaze forms when rain drops are
super cooled and fall through
subfreezing air near the ground
(turn to ice when collides with an
object).
• Hail starts out as small ice that
gets bigger by super cooled water http://weblogs.wgntv.com/chic
ago-weather/tom-skilling-
droplets as they fall through blog/2005/03/
clouds
18. Adiabatic cooling
• When air is allowed to
expand it cools and if it is
compressed it cools.
• Unsaturated air cools at a
constant rate.
• As you travel higher , the
atmospheric pressure
decrease because there http://www.bio.georgiasouthern.edu
/bio-
are fewer gas molecules. home/harvey/lect/lectures.html?cco
de=el&mda=scrn&flnm=abel&ttl=Po
pulations%20and%20their%20enviro
nment
