PRECIPITATION

PRESENTED BY: GROUP 4

Alulod, Camela Diana
Cervantes, Kelly
Enriquez, Feena
Proelss, James
DEFINITION

• Precipitation is water in either solid or liquid

form that falls from Earth's atmosphere.
• All types of moisture reaching the surface of
the earth.
• The basic input to the hydrology.
Formation of Precipitation

Convective system resulting from

unequal Radiative heating
Large scale cooling needed

Convergence caused by Orographic

barriers Saturation

• Moisture is always present in the atmosphere, even on the

cloudless day
• Saturation however does not necessarily lead to precipitation.
Necessary Mechanism to form
Precipitation

• Lifting mechanism to cool the air

• Formation of cloud elements(Droplets/Ice
crystals)
• Growth of cloud elements
• Sufficient accumulation of cloud elements
Lifting mechanism to cool the air
Lifting mechanism gives the three main types of
precipitation
• Cyclonic Precipitation
• Convective Precipitation
• Orographic Precipitation
Cyclonic Precipitation
(frontal/non frontal)

Frontal precipitation results

when the leading edge(front) of
a warm air mass meets cool air
mass. The warmer air mass is
forced up over the cool air.
As it rises the warm air cools,
moisture in the air condenses,
clouds and precipitation result.
Convective Precipitation

• Convectional precipitation
results from the heating of
the earth’s surface that
causes air to rise rapidly.
As the air rises, it cools and
moisture condenses into
clouds and precipitation.
Orographic Precipitation

• It results when warm moist air

of the ocean is forced to rise by
large mountains.
As the air rises it cools, moisture in
the air condenses and clouds and
precipitation result on the
windward side of the mountain
while the leeward side receives
very little.
• This is common in British
Columbia.
Formation of clouds elements
(droplets / ice crystals)

• For droplets, hygroscopic nuclei, small particles

having affinity for water must be available in
upper troposphere.
• For ice crystals, Freezing Nuclei are required.
• Source of condensation are particles of sea
salts, products of sulphurous and nitric acid
• Source of freezing nuclei are clay minerals,
usually kaolin, silver iodide
Growth of cloud elements

• For occurrence of precipitation over an area it is

necessary that cloud elements must be grown
in size to overcome
• Coalescence of cloud droplets
Cloud droplets are usually smaller than 50mm in
diameter.
Growth of droplets and ice crystals
For the occurrence of precipitation over an area
necessary conditions are:
• Cloud elements must increase in size until their
falling speeds exceed the ascending rate of air
• Cloud elements should be large enough in size
not to get evaporated completely before
reaching the ground
FORMS OF PRECIPITATION

Sno
Rain Hail
w

Fog Dew Mist

Rain

• Rain is the most common

type of precipitation in
atmosphere.
• It happens when liquid
droplets fall to the
surface of the Earth.
 Forms of Rain

Showers Drizzles
• Heavy, large drop of rain • Usually last longer and
and usually only last a are made up of smaller
period of time droplets of water.
Snow

• The second most

common precipitation in
the North East.
• Forms when water vapor
turns directly into ice
without ever passing
through a liquid state
• It happens as water
condenses an ice crystal.
Hail

• It is created when
moisture and wind are
together.
Shapes of hail particles:
 Spherical
 Conical
 Irregular
Fog

• A cloud that has formed

near the surface of the
earth.
Types of Fog
 Radiation fog
 Advection fog
 Upslope fog
 Evaporation fog
Dew

• Small drops of water

which can be found on
cool surfaces like grass in
the morning.
Dew point
-The temperature in which
condensation starts to take
place or when dew is created.
Mist/ Drizzle

• A bunch of small droplets

of water which are in the air.
• Occurs with cold air when
it is above a warm surface,
for example water.
Mist and fog are very similar, the only difference is
their visibility:

• If you can see 1 km or less you know you’re dealing

with fog.
• You can see visuals through mist and it is more
haze looking than a thicker substance.
Glaze

• Glaze is the ice coating, generally clear

and smooth, formed on exposed
surfaces by the freezing of super
cooled water deposited by rain or
drizzle.
Rime

The white opaque deposit of ice granules more or less

separated by trapped air and formed by rapid freezing or
super cooled water drops impinging on exposed objects.
Sleet

Consists of transparent, globular, solid grains of ice

formed by the freezing of raindrops or freezing of largely
melted ice crystals falling through a layer of sub freezing
air near the earth’s surface.
Precipitation Forms in Philippines

Rain Dew

Fog Mist
Artificially Induced Precipitation

• It’s also called rain making or practice of artificially

inducing or increasing precipitation through clouds by
adding external agents.
• The foreign particles which are drenched over these
clouds can be Dry Ice(solid carbon dioxide), Silver Iodide,
 Salt powder etc. This process is known as Cloud
Seeding. This stimulation is done by aeroplanes or
rockets. And then finally "rain on".
• Used to stave off drought.
 How is it done?

1. Agitation :
The first stage includes the use of chemicals to stimulate the air mass
upwind of target area to rise and form clouds. These chemicals absorbs
the water vapour and helps in the process of condensation. Chemicals
like - Calcium Oxide, compound of Urea and Ammonium
Nitrate or Chloride Calcium Carbonate.

2. Building Up Stage :
In the second stage the mass of
the cloud is build up by urea, dry
ice, kitchen salt etc to increase
the density of the clouds.
3. Seeding :
In the final stage of
persuing the artificial rain,
super cool chemicals (dry
ice or iodide) are
bombarded with the
presurized canister onto
the base of the clouds to
build the beads of water
and make them fall as rain.
Artificially Induced Precipitation
Thank you for listening!
!