Aldrich exam 2
If a city were to receive half in inch of rain in the morning and 5 inches of snow in the afternoon, how much liquid liquid precipitation fell on that day?
1
meaning of water cycle
A model that illustrates the movement and exchange of water among the earth, atmosphere, and oceans
How do satellites work and why are they important?
A satellite works by receiving radio signals sent from earth and resending the radio signals back down to earth.
Condensation Nuclei
Bits of dust, smoke and salt that water easily adheres to
The Cycle of water in the Atmosphere
Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation
After a rainstorm, visibility typically deteriorates
False
The Environmental lapse rate and the dry adiabatic rate are different expressions for the same phenomenon. True/False
False
If the air temperature remains constant, evaporating water into the air will ____ the dew point and ____ the relative humidity
Increase; increase
relative humidity does what
Measures how dense the water vapor in the atmosphere is in a given volume of air.
Why is it best to water at night/morning rather than the afternoon?
Mornings tend to be cool and without strong winds, so the amount of water lost to evaporation is much less than during the middle of the day.
Adiabatic Process
Parcel expands and cools or compresses warms up without exchanging heat with its environment. (heat neither taken or added)
Dry adiabatic lapse rate
The Rate of Temperature Change of a Dry Air Parcel that is Expanding & Cooling or Compressing & Warming without Exchanging Heat.
What happens as temperatures and dew point increase
The amount of moisture in the atmosphere will increase
What will occur if a glass of water at a stable temperature is surrounded by saturated air?
The level of the water in the glass would not change.
relative humidity
The ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air compared to the amount required for saturation (at a particular temperature and pressure
Saturation is more likely to occur in cool air than in warm air. True/False
True
The dew point temperature is a measure of the total amount of water vapor in the air. True/False
True
Frost forms when the dew point temperature is at or below freezing. True/False
True
Frost
a deposit of small white ice crystals formed on the ground or other surfaces whose source is water vapor.
Which cloud type below will only produce precipitation by the collision-coalescence process?
a thick, warm cumulus cloud
The growth of a precipitation particle by the collision of an ice crystal (or snowflake) with a supercooled liquid droplet is called
accretion
A process in which an air parcel expands and cools, or compresses and warms, with no interchange of heat with its surroundings is called a(n):
adiabatic process
Clouds are classified by their
altitude and appearance
A dim, "watery" Sun visible through a gray sheet-like cloud layer is often a good indication of ____ clouds.
altostratus
Infrared satellite imagery
are related to brightness, radiation increases with height,
An example of orographic clouds would be
clouds forming on the windward slope of a mountain
As Apollo 12 ascended into the atmosphere, the height of the surrounding clouds was noted to be 42,000 feet. A lightning strike was seen within these clouds, indicating that they must have been
cumulonimbus
Which cloud type below would most likely form in an unstable atmosphere?
cumulonimbus
what type of cloud would hail form in?
cumulonimbus
Fallstreaks usually ____ before reaching the ground
evaporate
An example of orographic clouds would be clouds
forming on the windward slope of a mountain
In the winter you read in the newspaper that a large section of the Midwest is without power due to downed power lines. Which form of precipitation would most likely produce this situation?
freezing rain
When radiation fog "burns off", the fog tends to dissipate
from the bottom up
Which of the following might be mistaken for hail?
graupel
Visible satellite imagery
measure scattered light, amount of light reflected from cloud.
As the air cools during the night, the relative humidity increases. When the relative humidity reaches about 75 percent, condensation may begin on the most active hygroscopic nuclei, producing a ____________________ haze.
moist
frost forms
on objects that are below freezing (vapor).
Any form of water, either liquid or solid (rain or snow), that falls from clouds and reaches the ground is called ____________________
precipitation
A high water vapor pressure indicates a(n)
relatively large number of water vapor molecules in the air
Suppose it is raining lightly from a deck of nimbostratus clouds. Beneath the clouds are small, ragged, puffy clouds that are moving rapidly with the wind. These clouds would be called ____________________ clouds
scud
The Doppler radar uses the principle called Doppler ____ to measure the speed at which falling rain is moving horizontally toward or away from the radar antenna.
shift
If the air temperature increased, with no addition or removal of water vapor, the actual vapor pressure would
stay the same
Dew point
the temperature at which air has to be cooled for air to become saturated.
Frozen Dew
the transformation of liquid dew into tiny beads of ice when the air temperature drops below freezing
If you observe large raindrops hitting the ground, you could probably say that the cloud overhead was ____ and had ____ updrafts
thick; strong
In a sky filled with scattered cumulus humilis clouds, rising motions are found ____ the clouds and sinking motions are found ____ the clouds.
under; between
if an air parcel is given a small push upward and it continues to move upward on its own accord, the atmosphere is said to be
unstable
Dew
water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed object in the morning or evening due to condensation.
Would you expect water in a glass to evaporate more quickly on a windy, warm, dry summer day or on a calm, cold, dry winter day
windy, warm, dry summer day
The dry adiabatic rate is ____ greater than the moist adiabatic rate
always
Advection fog is often observed along the Pacific coast during summer, as westerly winds carry moist air toward the shore. The fog forms because the surface water near the coast is ____ the surface water farther offshore
much colder than
The cooling of the ground to produce dew is mainly the result of
radiational cooling.
Most thunderstorms do not extend very far into the stratosphere because the air in the stratosphere is
stable.