By Zach Kraus

Clouds And Precipitation

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Adiabatic Temperature Changes and Expansion and Cooling

• Air cools when it expands and it warms when it compresses

• Dry adiabatic rate is 10ᵒ per every 1000 meters

• Wet adiabatic rate is 5ᵒ-8ᵒ per every 100 meters

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Orographic Lifting

• When elevated land, like mountains, blocks the airflow

• which can cause adiabatic cooling which makes clouds and precipitation

• ag.arizona.edu

Frontal Wedging

• When cool dense air makes less dense warmer air rise above the cooler air

• geo.hunter.cuny.edu

Convergence

• Airflow from more than one direction, usually up

• Leads to adiabatic cooling and the formation of clouds

• ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu

Localized Convective Lifting

• When warm pockets of air around cooler air pushes the warm air up

• rst.gsfc.nasa.gov

Stability

• Stable air resists vertical movement while unstable air rises freely

• The most stable air is when air temperature rises with height which is called a temperature inversion

• Thin clouds are formed when stable air is forced into the atmosphere, compared to puffy clouds formed from unstable air

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Condensation

• Can be in the forms of dew, fog, or clouds• Air must be saturated for any kind of

condensation• Must have a surface to condensate on

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Types of Clouds

• Classified on the basis of their form and height• Cirrus clouds are white, thin, and high• Cumulus clouds are round individual clouds• Stratus clouds are sheets that cover up a lot of

the sky

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High Clouds

• First type, Cirrus clouds are very thin and wispy

• Second type, Cirrocumulus that have fluffy masses

• Last type, Cirrostratus clouds are flat layers

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Middle Clouds

• Range from about 2,000-6,000 meters• Altocumulus clouds are thicker and denser

than cirrocumulus • Altostratus clouds creates a white blanket that

covers the sky

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Low Clouds

• Stratus, stratocumulus, and nimbostratus are the three types of low clouds

• Stratus clouds are like foggy layers of clouds • Stratocumulus clouds appear as long patches

of clouds • Nimbostratus clouds are usually the clouds

that create precipitation and are made of stable air

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Clouds of Vertical Development

• Associated with unstable air• Usually cumulus clouds that grow upward and

turns into cumulonimbus cloud that usually makes rain and thunderstorms

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Fog

• No difference between fog and clouds, fog is defined as a cloud with its base close to the ground

• Sometimes made by warm moist air moves over cold ground

• May occur when cool air moves over warm water

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Cold Cloud Precipitation

• The Bergeron procedure relies on super cooling and supersaturating to chill the water in the air

• Super cooled water is water under 0 and will readily freeze if touches a solid object

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Warm Cloud Precipitation

• The collision-coalescence process forms raindrops in warm clouds

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Rain and Snow

• The term rain means drops of water that fall from clouds and need to be .5 mm, rain smaller than that is considered drizzle

• When the temperature is lower 6 sided ice crystals that are fluffy and white fall from clouds

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Sleet, Glaze, and Hail

• Sleet is falling pieces of ice that are small and almost see through

• Glaze is raindrops that freeze when they hit the ground

• Hail is pieces of ice that grow bigger and bigger as they fall through the air

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THE END!!!school.discoveryeducation.com