Stability and Cloud Development

If an air parcel is given a small push upward and it falls back to its original position, the atmosphere is said to be:

Stable

For least polluted surface air, the best time of the day for a farmer to burn agricultural debris would be:

around the time of maximum surface air temperature

A moist layer of stable surface air can change into a deck of low stratocumulus clouds by the process of

mixing

Clouds that appear as waves breaking along the shore are called

Billows

If unsaturated stable air is lifted to a level where it becomes saturated and unstable, this type of instability is called ____ _____

Conditional Instability

These two conditions, working together, will make the atmosphere the most stable.

Cool the surface and warm the air aloft

Which of the following is not a way of producing clouds?

subsidence

when the atmosphere is absolutely unstable, the environmental lapse rate is_____________ the dry adiabatic rate

greater than

Subsidence inversions are best developed with ____ pressure areas because of the ____ air motions associated with them.

high, sinking

The moist adiabatic rate is different from the dry adiabatic rate because

latent heat is released inside a parcel of rising saturated air

Rising saturated air cools at a lesser rate than rising unsaturated air primarily because

latent heat of condensation is released in a rising parcel of saturated air

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

These two conditions, working together, will make the atmosphere the most unstable.

warm the surface and cool the air aloft

An inversion represents an extremely stable atmosphere because air that rises into the inversion will eventually become ____ and ____ dense than the surrounding air.

Colder, more

The rate at which the air temperature changes inside a rising or descending parcel of unsaturated air is called the ____ ____

Dry adiabatic rate

The rate at which the temperature changes inside a rising (or descending) parcel of saturated air is called the:

Moist Adiabatic Rate

Large masses of air rise when they approach a long chain of mountains. This lifting produces cooling, and if the air is humid, clouds form.

Process of Orographic Lifting

A ____ inversion forms when air slowly sinks over a wide area

Subsidence

when the air temperature decreases very slowly with height, and the environmental lapse rate is less than the moist adiabatic rate, the atmosphere is

absolutely stable