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The Physical Environment

Class 6: Atmospheric Moisture; Weather

Dr. Shaker

3 October 2019
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The Physical Environment

“Some people feel the rain; other just get wet.”

~ Roger Miller (1972)

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Outline:
1. Atmospheric Moisture

2. Atmospheric Stability

3. Air Masses; Fronts

4. Cyclogenesis
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Outline:
1. Atmospheric Moisture

2. Atmospheric Stability

3. Air Masses; Fronts

4. Cyclogenesis
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Introduction
• The Hydrologic Cycle
– Water covers over 70 percent of the planet
• A unique substance which easily changes
state

– Water cycles through the Earth/atmosphere

system by:
• Evaporation/transpiration
• Interception
• Infiltration
• Condensation
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Three States of Water:

•Solid (ice)
•Liquid (water)
•Gas (vapor)
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Humidity
Humidity: the amount of water vapor in the air

The maximum
quantity of moisture
that can be held in
the air depends on
air temperature
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Humidity
Relative Humidity: compares the amount of
water vapor present in the air to the maximum
amount that the air can hold at that temperature
Expressed as a percentage:
At 100% relative humidity, air is saturated.
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Humidity
Relative Humidity changes when:
1. Atmosphere gains or loses water vapor
• Evaporation

2. Temperature changes
• Lower temperatureà relative humidity rises
• Raise temperatureà relative humidity decreases
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Specific Humidity: actual

quantity of water held
by a parcel of air
•Grams of water vapor
per kilogram of air (g/kg)
•Highest in equatorial
zones
•Lowest near poles
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Humidity
Dew-point temperature:
temperature at which air
with a given humidity will
reach saturation when
cooled without changing its
pressure. Condensation
begins once reached.

Frost Point: saturation

occurs below the freezing
point.
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– Saturation vapor pressure
• Maximum water vapor pressure possible
• Solely temperature dependent
• Exponentially increases with temperature
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Achieving Saturation
• Methods of Achieving
Saturation
– Addition of water vapor
– Mixing cold air with warm,
moist air
– Cooling air to the dew
point
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• Distribution of Water Vapor
– In air from
• Evaporation
• Advection
– Gulf of Mexico = major source
• Reflected by distribution of dew points

January Dew Points – July Dew Points

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Humidity
• Measuring Humidity
– Sling psychrometer (below)
• Two thermometers to measure wet and dry bulb
temperatures
– Aspirated and hair hygrometers are alternatives
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Condensation
• Condensation occurs when water vapor changes
to a liquid.
• For condensation to take place, the air must be
saturated and there must be a surface on which
the vapor can condense.
• In the air above the ground, tiny hygroscopic
(water-absorbent) particles known as
condensation nuclei serve as the surfaces on
which water vapor can condense.
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Nuclei
• Hygroscopic nuclei
• Natural (salt, dust, ash, etc.) and
anthropogenic (combustion derivative)
sources
• Ice nuclei
– Atmospheric water does not freeze at 0 oC
(32 oF)
– Leads to supercooled water
– At or below –40 oC (–40 oF) = spontaneous
nucleation
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Clouds
• Clouds, visible aggregates of minute droplets
of water or tiny crystals of ice, are one form of
condensation.

• Clouds are classified on the basis of two

criteria: form and height.

• The three basic cloud forms are:

§ cirrus (high, white, and thin),
§ cumulus (globular, individual cloud masses), and
§ stratus (sheets or layers).
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Cloud Heights
• Cloud heights can be either:
§ High, with bases above 6000 meters (20,000 feet),
§ Middle, from 2000 to 6000 meters, or
§ Low, below 2000 meters (6500 feet).

• Based on the two criteria, ten basic cloud

types, including such types as cirrostratus,
altocumulus, and stratocumulus, are
recognized.
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Cloud Families: High clouds, middle clouds, low clouds,

clouds of vertical development
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Cumulus Clouds

Cumuliform clouds: globular masses of cloud,

associated with parcels of rising air
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Stratus Clouds

Image ID: wea02050, NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) Collection

Photographer: Ralph F. Kresge

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/wea02050.htm

Stratiform clouds: blanket-like, cover large areas

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Cirrus Clouds

Cirrus clouds: high, thin, wispy clouds composed of ice

crystals
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Fog
Fog is a cloud layer at or close to Earth’s surface
•Radiation fog: formed
when temperature of
the air at ground level
falls below dew point
•Advection fog: forms
when warm moist air
moves over a cold
surface
Image ID: wea03250, NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) Collection
Photographer: LCDR Mark Wetzler, NOAA Corps
•Common over
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/wea03250.htm
oceans (“sea fog”)
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Precipitation
• Precipitation: water falling from the atmosphere
to the earth.
• Requires lifting of air mass so that it cools and
condenses.
• The two most common and familiar forms of
precipitation are:
§ Rain (drops of water that fall from a cloud and have
a diameter of at least 0.5 millimeter) and
§ Snow (precipitation in the form of ice crystals or,
more often, aggregates of ice crystals).
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More Precipitation Types
• Other forms include:
Sleet (falling small particles of ice that are clear to
translucent),
Glaze (formed when supercooled raindrops turn to ice
on colliding with solid objects),
Hail (hard, rounded pellets or irregular lumps of ice
produced in large cumulonimbus clouds), and
Rime (a deposit of ice crystals formed by the freezing of
supercooled fog or cloud droplets on objects whose
surface temperature is below freezing).
Drizzle (smaller droplets of rain, yet larger than mist)
Mist (smallest water droplets visible)
Graupel (watery hail)
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Precipitation Formation
• Lifting cools air masses so
moisture condenses
• Condensation nuclei
– Aerosols
– water molecules attach
• Rising & growing
– 0.5 cm/s sufficient to carry
10 mm droplet
– Critical size (~0.1 mm)
– Gravity overcomes and
drop falls
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Precipitation Formation
• For precipitation to form, millions of cloud
droplets must somehow coalesce into drops
large enough to sustain themselves during their
descent.

• The two mechanisms that have been proposed

to explain this phenomenon are:
§ the Bergeron process, which produces precipitation
from cold clouds (or cold cloud tops) primarily in the
middle latitudes;
§ the warm cloud process most associated with the
tropics called the collision-coalescence process.
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Droplet Growth
– Growth by condensation
• Forms most cloud drops initially
• Growth limited to a radii of ~ 20
µm
– Insufficient for precipitation

– Growth in warm clouds

• Collision-coalescence
– Large collector drops begin
process
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The Bergeron Process
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Cumulonimbus clouds = ice (top, fuzzy cloud margins), liquid

(bottom, sharp margins), and mix of ice and liquid (middle)
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Rain
– Rain
• Rainshowers
• Raindrop shape
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Forces Acting on Rain Drops
• Three forces acting on rain
drop D

– Gravity force due to weight

– Buoyancy force due to Fb
Fd Fd
displacement of air Fg
– Drag force due to friction
with surrounding air Volume =
p
D3
6
p
Area = D2
p p 4
Fg = r w g D 3
Fb = r a g D 3

6 6

V2 2 p V
2
Fd = Cd r a A = Cd r a D
2 4 2
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Lake Effect Snow
• Lake Effect snow
– Large bodies of water
– Ex.: Great Lakes
▪ Snows stimulated as cold air passes
over warmer lake surface
(evaporation)
▪ Destabilizes overlying atmosphere
▪ Provides uplift
– Snows occur in narrow bands in lee of
lakes
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Lake Effect Snow Formation

Insert Fig 7-13

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Precipitation Variation
• Influenced by
– Atmospheric circulation and local factors
• Higher near coastlines
• Seasonal variation – annual oscillations in some
places
• Variables in mountainous areas
• Increases in plains areas
• More uniform in Eastern N. America than in West
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Average Annual Precipitation (USA)

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Measuring Precipitation

• Measuring Precipitation
– Standard raingages
• Sparse network

• Snow Measurement
– Accumulated snow measured
• Water equivalent of snow = 10 to 1 ratio
– Automated snow pillows
• Convert weight to water equivalent
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Outline:
1. Atmospheric Moisture

2. Atmospheric Stability

3. Air Masses; Fronts

4. Cyclogenesis
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Stability
• What is stability?

• Stability refers to a condition of equilibrium.

If we apply some perturbation to a system,
how will that system be affected?

– Stable: System returns to original state

– Unstable: System continues to move away from
original state
– Neutral: System remains steady after perturbed
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Stability Example
Stable: Marble returns to its original position

Unstable: Marble rapidly moves away from initial position

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Stability
How does a bowl and marble relate to the atmosphere??
• When the atmosphere is stable, a parcel of air that is lifted
will want to return back to its original position:
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Stability
• When the atmosphere is unstable (with respect to a lifted
parcel of air), a parcel will want to continue to rise if lifted:
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Air Stability
• When air rises, it cools and can eventually produce
clouds.

• Stable air resists vertical movement, while unstable

air rises.

• The stability of air is determined by the

environmental lapse rate, the temperature at
various heights.
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Rising of Air
• When air rises, it expands and cools adiabatically. If
air is lifted sufficiently high, it will eventually cool to
its dew-point temperature, and clouds will develop.
• The four mechanisms that cause air to rise are:
– (1) orographic lifting, where air is forced to rise over a
mountainous barrier,
– (2) frontal wedging, where warmer, less dense air is
forced over cooler, denser air along a front,
– (3) convergence, a pileup of horizontal air flow
resulting in an upward flow, and
– (4) localized convective lifting, where unequal surface
heating causes localized pockets of air to rise because
of their buoyancy.
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Rising of Air
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Stability Conditions
• The three fundamental stability conditions of the
atmosphere are:
– (1) absolute stability, when the environmental lapse
rate is less than the wet adiabatic rate,
– (2) absolute instability, when the environmental
lapse rate is greater than the dry adiabatic rate, and
– (3) conditional instability, when moist air has an
environmental lapse rate between the dry and wet
adiabatic rates.
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Stability Conditions (cont.)
• In general, when stable air is forced aloft, the associated
clouds have little vertical thickness, and precipitation, if any,
is light.

• In contrast, clouds associated with unstable air are towering

and frequently accompanied by heavy rain.

• Any factor that causes air near the surface to become

warmed in relation to the air aloft increases the air’s
instability.

• The opposite is also true; any factor that causes the surface
air to be chilled results in the air becoming more stable.
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Examples of
warm fronts:
a) Stable warm
front
b) Unstable
warm front
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Stability Conditions (cont.)
• Most processes that alter stability result from temperature
changes caused by horizontal or vertical air movement,
although daily temperature changes are important too.

• Changes in stability occur as air moves horizontally over a

surface having markedly different temperatures.

• On a smaller scale, the loss of heat from cloud tops during

evening hours adds to their instability and growth.

• Furthermore, in general, subsidence ( a general downward

airflow) generally stabilizes the air, while upward air
movement enhances instability.
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Outline:
1. Atmospheric Moisture

2. Atmospheric Stability

3. Air Masses; Fronts

4. Cyclogenesis
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Introduction
• Air mass: A large body of air with similar
temperature and moisture characteristics over its
horizontal extent.
• Front: Boundary between contrasting air masses.
• Cold front: Leading edge of the cold air when it is
advancing towards warm air.
• Warm front: leading edge of the warm air when
advancing towards cold air.
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Air Mass Formation
• Formation of Air Masses
– Source regions
• Topographically uniform areas
• Surface conditions transfer to overlying air
– Moisture content
• Maritime, continental
– Temperature
• Tropical, polar, or arctic
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Air Masses
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Cold Air Masses
– Continental Polar (cP) and Continental
Arctic (cA) air masses
• Canada and Asia origin
• Cold and dry
• Inherently stable
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Continental Polar Migration
cP air migration and modification
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• Fronts
• Boundaries
between unlike air
masses
• Four types

The FOUR fronts

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Cold Fronts
•Cold Fronts
– Cold air displaces warm air
– Steep uplift causes cumulonimbus clouds
and heavy precipitation

Frontal development
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Vertical displacement along a cold front

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Cold Front
A cold front depicted on a satellite picture (a)
and radar composite (b)
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Warm & Stationary Fronts
•Warm fronts
– Warm air displaces colder air
– Warmer air displaced aloft
▪ Overrunning
– Shallow lift produces stratus clouds
▪ Light precipitation
•Stationary fronts
– Neither air mass encroaches
– Warmer air is displaced aloft
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Warm Front Overrunning

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Occluded Fronts
•Occluded fronts
– When two fronts meet
▪ Cold front closes on a warm
– Cold-type occlusion
▪ Eastern half of continent
– Warm-type occlusion
▪ Western continental edge
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Occlusion sequence (next three slides)

(1)
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(2)
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(3)
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Some occlusions
form when the
surface low
elongates and
moves away from
the junction of
the cold and warm
fronts
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Some occlusions
form when the
intersection
of the cold and
warm fronts
slides along
the warm front
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Outline:
1. Atmospheric Moisture

2. Atmospheric Stability

3. Air Masses; Fronts

4. Cyclogenesis
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Introduction
• Vilhelm Bjerknes (1862-1951)
– Developed polar front theory
– Bergen School in Norway
• The Life Cycle of a Midlatitude Cyclone
– Cyclogenesis
• Begins along the polar front
• Low pressure forms
• Fronts develop
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Cyclogenesis Sequence

(1)
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(2)
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Mature Cyclones
– Mature Cyclones
• Deep low-pressure center
• Well-developed fronts
• Prefrontal waves (squall lines)
• Varied precipitation types and amounts
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Maturity

(3)
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Lifting processes and cloud cover

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Occlusion

(4)
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(5)
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Cyclone Movement
– Movement of Cyclones
• Develops as a weak disturbance
• Strengthening of system
– Blizzards
• Occlusion over western North Atlantic
• Progression of weather conditions over time
for affected locations
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Two examples of
midlatitude cyclones
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Troposphere Processes
• Processes of the Middle and Upper
Troposphere
– Rossby waves and vorticity
• The rotation of air
– Absolute
– Relative
▪ Positive or negative
• Trough and ridge associations
• Triggers surface pressure changes
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Relative Vorticity
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Convergence and divergence along a Rossby wave

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April 15
Example of a midlatitude cyclone
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April 16
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April 17
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April 18