basic meteorology (kevin kloesel, ph.d.)

8/7/2019 Basic Meteorology (Kevin Kloesel, Ph.D.)

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Basic Meteorology

Dr. Kevin [email protected]

National Press FoundationMarch 12, 2007


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Some analogies with the human body.

Blood pressure: hypertensive versus normal


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O n any given dayor two


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GOAL S:

Earths rotation on its axis

Earths rotation (orbit) around the Sun

Patterns of Uneven Heating

Patterns of Pressure

Patterns of Weather!


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Equatorial (Tropical) Regions

Polar Regions


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The uneven heating should produce a global temperaturepattern that looks like this...

Does it?


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Q uantitative Temperature measurements look like this...

WHY?


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A nd in July.


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M ean annual temperature by latitude(shading indicates variability)

Note! Be careful with graphs like this!


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Coriolis Force

An apparent force due to the earthsrotation.

Found in all moving reference systems. Occurs when reference systems interact. Ever tried to throw a ball on a rotating disk?


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Polar Stereographic Projection - Northern Hemisphere

The real world - Notice the global connectivity


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Notice the ridge in the Central Plains and the troughs in the eastand west. The trough is where you observe low 500mb heights (lowthickness values and cold temps.). The ridge is where the highestthickness values (and highest temps.) are observed.


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TR O UG HTR OF TR O UG H

RID G E


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Anomalies aredepartures fromnormal. In thiscase, the warmcolors indicateabove normal,and the cold

colors indicatebelow normal.Notice thealternatingpattern as youmove around thepole.

These data are

fromM

ay 2001.


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A ir M ass Classification


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A global composite water vapor image.


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SO MU

CH C

OMPLEXITYS O MU CH TO LEARN

ITS ALL ABOUTRE S OLUTION!


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VOXELS mapped into PIXELS, at different resolution.


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Review!

The Earth is round, spins, orbits an energy source, and is tilted

on its axis at 23.5 degrees.

Therefore, we have cold (dense) air at the poles, and warm (lessdense) air in the tropics.

Cold air takes up less space (more dense) than warm air.

The Earth is constantly trying to reach an equilibrium (movingwarm air poleward and cold air equatorward).

Ever-changing ingredients stirred by troughs and ridges bringthe changing weather conditions that we observe on Earth.


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Review cont!

Ridge-trough patterns exist around the Earth and areconnected in a circumpolar fashion in each hemisphere.

Therefore, pattern changes in one region can impact theweather in others.

Ridge-trough patterns result in the migration of air massesaround the planet.

A ir mass boundaries are called fronts, and tend to be the focusfor storms and precipitation.


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BREAK TIME!

Please do not hesitate to email

me with any questions

Kevin [email protected]

basic meteorology (kevin kloesel, ph.d.)

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