Meteorology Today 11th Edition Ahrens

Solutions Manual
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 Instructor's Manual and Test Bank to accompany Meteorology Today, 11th Edition

Chapter 7
Precipitation
Learning Objectives

Precipitation Processes
7-1: Identify the relationship between evaporation/condensation, the curvature effect, and the
solute effect and cloud droplet size.
7-2: Describe the environments in which precipitation occurs due to the collision-
coalescence process.
7-3: Explain the formation of ice crystals and supercooled cloud droplets in cold clouds, and
the conditions required for the ice crystal (Bergeron) process to cause precipitation.
7-4: Discuss the different ways cloud seeding can be achieved in experiment, and compare
them with cloud seeding processes that occur naturally in Earth’s atmosphere.
Precipitation Types
7-5: Differentiate between precipitation types, and state their properties, size and shape,
formation conditions, and respective effects on life on Earth.
Measuring Precipitation
7-6: Compare and contrast the instruments and techniques commonly used to measure
precipitation.
7-7: Examine the uses and benefits of Doppler radar and other radar types with regard to
measuring precipitation.
7-8: Describe how satellites are used to measure precipitation from space.
 Summary

This chapter examines the processes that produce precipitation and looks at the different types of
precipitation that can fall from clouds.

The chapter begins with a more detailed look at the formation and growth of cloud droplets. “The
Freezing of Tiny Cloud Droplets”, the first of many focus sections, describes the formation and growth of
ice embryos. Cloud droplets or ice crystals are themselves too small and light to be able to reach the
ground as precipitation. Raindrops can form rapidly in warm clouds, however, when water droplets
collide and coalesce. Formation of rain by this process works best in thick clouds that have strong
updrafts. In cold clouds it is possible for ice crystals to grow when surrounded by supercooled water
droplets. Attempts to enhance precipitation by cloud seeding are reviewed. A second focus section
discusses the process by which precipitation is artificially enhanced by cloud seeding.

Precipitation can reach the ground in a variety of forms depending on the type of cloud producing
it and also on the atmospheric conditions between the cloud base and the ground. The myths of the tear-
shaped raindrop and the idea that below-freezing temperatures are required for snowfall are exposed in
separate focus sections. The mechanisms of freezing rain and sleet formation are described. The
“squeakiness” of snow and the hazardous phenomenon of aircraft icing are described in interesting focus
sections. Finally, students learn how rain and snowfall amounts can be measured using simple
instruments or estimated remotely using Doppler radar or satellite-based instruments.

Key Terms

precipitation snowflake rime

equilibrium vapor pressure cloud seeding black ice
curvature effect rain ice storm, 186
solute effect drizzle snow grains
collision-coalescence process virga snow pellets
terminal velocity shower (rain) hailstones
coalescence snow hailstreak
ice-crystal(Bergeron) process fallstreaks standard rain gauge
supercooled droplets flurries (of snow) trace (of precipitation)
ice nuclei snow squall tipping bucket rain gauge
contact freezing blizzard weighing-type rain gauge
accretion sleet (ice pellets) water equivalent
graupel freezing rain (glaze) radar
aggregation freezing drizzle Doppler radar
Teaching Suggestions

1. Measure and compare the fall speeds of different size drops (fine mist, drops from an eye
dropper, small and large water balloons).

2. Have the class design a precipitation-enhancement experiment. What method for enhancing
precipitation will be used? What materials will be needed? How will the experiment’s success be
assessed?

3. Discuss what atmospheric conditions would cause a meteorologist to forecast sleet or freezing
rain.

4. Encourage students to discuss the design of an automatic snowfall measurement device.

5. Have students list the various ways in which standard and tipping bucket rain gauges might either
overestimate or underestimate the actual amount of rainfall.

6. When cloud drops grow into raindrops, their volume increases by a factor of 10,000. In
cumulonimbus clouds, this growth takes place in approximately 30 minutes or less. Challenge students to
suggest other natural phenomena with similar growth rates.

7. Encourage students to photograph snowflakes and post them on the class Facebook page.

8. Before spring or winter break, have students speculate on what clouds might look like from
above. Encourage any students who might be traveling by airplane to photograph clouds from the plane
and share them with the class when they return.

9. Show a surface weather chart and identify areas with different precipitation types.

10. Stage a debate as to which is the best way to measure precipitation - Doppler radar or tipping
bucket rain gauge.

Student Projects

1. Rainfall measurement, the construction of simple and inexpensive rain gauges, and student
projects have been discussed by J.T. Snow and S.B. Harley (ref: "Basic Meteorological Observations for
Schools: Rainfall”, Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 69, 498-507, 1988).

2. Have students explain why rain falls to the ground but clouds do not.

3. Have students measure snow depth in three representative areas using a yardstick. Average the
results. Given the variation in the three measurements, what level of confidence can be placed in the
average?
4. Have students review the document “An Overview of National Weather Service Quantitative
Precipitation Estimates” and summarize the strengths and weaknesses of rain gauge and tipping bucket
rainfall measurements. The document is available at:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/im/pub/tdl97-4.pdf

5. Have students give several reasons why rain gauges are not effective for snowfall measurements.

Answers to Question for Review

1. An ordinary cloud droplet is extremely small, having an average diameter of 20 µm or 0.002 cm,
which is about 100 times smaller than a typical raindrop.

2. They evaporate before reaching the ground.

3. Large drops fall faster in clouds than small drops. As they fall they overtake and collide with
smaller drops in their path. The merging of small drops with large drops is called coalescence.
Coalescence is enhanced is the colliding droplets have opposite electrical charges. If cloud droplets spend
a lot of time in a cloud, very large drops of precipitation can be formed. Enhanced updrafts inside clouds
lead to larger droplets being formed.

4. The towering cumulus congestus cloud because it's thicker, giving more opportunity for cloud
droplets to collide and coalesce.

5. Homogeneous freezing - Occurs when molecules within the water droplet join together in a rigid
pattern to form an ice structure which then serves as an ice nucleus. Contact freezing - Occurs when
supercooled drops collide with freezing nuclei. Accretion - Occurs when ice crystals grow larger as they
collide with supercooled water droplets.

6. Larger droplets. The chances of an ice embryo growing large enough to freeze water before the
embryo is broken up by thermal agitation increase with bigger volumes of water. Only larger cloud
droplets can freeze by homogeneous freezing at temperatures warmer than -40°C.

7. There are many more cloud condensation nuclei than ice nuclei, cold clouds contain many more
liquid droplets than ice particles, even at temperatures as low as -10°C.

8. The main premise is that the saturation vapor pressure just above a water surface is greater than
the saturation vapor pressure above an ice surface. This difference in vapor pressure causes water vapor
molecules to move (diffuse) from the droplet toward the ice crystal. The removal of vapor molecules
reduces the vapor pressure above the droplet. Since the droplet is now out of equilibrium with its
surroundings, it evaporates to replenish the diminished supply of water vapor above it. This process
provides a continuous source of moisture for the ice crystal, which absorbs the water vapor and grows
rapidly. Hence, during the ice-crystal (Bergeron) process, ice crystals grow larger at the expense of the
surrounding water droplets.

9. Cumulonimbus clouds normally contain large convection currents causing heavy showers.
Continuous rain usually falls from layered clouds that cover a large area and have smaller vertical air
currents, such as nimbostratus clouds.
10. Snowflakes that fall through moist air that is slightly above freezing slowly melt as they descend.
A thin film of water forms on the edge of the flakes, which acts like glue when other snowflakes come in
contact with it. In this way, several flakes join to produce giant snowflakes often measuring several
centimeters or more in diameter. These large, soggy snowflakes are associated with moist air and
temperatures near freezing. However, when snowflakes fall through extremely cold air with a low-
moisture content, small, powdery flakes of “dry” snow accumulate on the ground.

11. Droplets. The saturation vapor pressure just above a water surface is greater than the saturation
vapor pressure above an ice surface. See Figure 7.8.

12. The first ingredient in any seeding project is the presence of clouds. Seeding by itself does not
generate clouds.

13. Overseeding can produce too many ice crystals. When this phenomenon occurs, the cloud
becomes glaciated (all liquid droplets become ice) and the ice particles, being very small, do not fall as
precipitation. Since few liquid droplets exist, the ice crystals cannot grow by the ice-crystal (Bergeron)
process; rather, they evaporate, leaving a clear area in a thin, stratified cloud. Because dry ice can produce
the most ice crystals in a supercooled cloud, it is the substance most suitable for deliberate overseeding.

14. When cirriform clouds lie directly above a lower cloud deck, ice crystals may descend from the
higher cloud and seed the cloud below. As the ice crystals mix into the lower cloud, supercooled droplets
are converted to ice crystals, and the precipitation process is enhanced.

15. The below-cloud air must have a low relative humidity and the wet-bulb temperature (the lowest
temperature possible by evaporating water into air) must be at freezing or below.

16. Advantages: A blanket of snow is a good insulator. A light, fluffy covering of snow protects
sensitive plants and their root systems from damaging low temperatures by retarding the loss of ground
heat. Snow can prevent the ground from freezing downward to great depths. The accumulation of snow in
mountains provides for winter recreation, and the melting snow in spring and summer is of great
economic value in that it supplies streams and reservoirs with much-needed water. Disadvantages: Rapid
melting of the snowpack may flood low-lying areas. Too much snow on the side of a steep hill or
mountain may become an avalanche as the spring thaw approaches. The added weight of snow on the roof
of a building may cause it to collapse, leading to costly repairs and even loss of life. Each winter, heavy
snows clog streets and disrupt transportation.

17. For sleet to form, surface temperatures must be below freezing. Surface temperatures are
typically well above freezing during hailstorms, and inside hail forming clouds there are generally levels
that are well above freezing.

18. Sleet is a frozen raindrop. Freezing rain is a supercooled raindrop that freezes upon impact with
the surface.
19. Hail is produced in a cumulonimbus cloud when graupel, large frozen raindrops, or just about any
particles (even insects) act as embryos that grow by accumulating supercooled liquid droplets. Violent,
upsurging air currents within the cloud carry small embryos high above the freezing level. As the
embryos pass through regions of varying liquid water content, a coating of ice forms around them and
they grow larger and larger. When the ice particles are an appreciable size, they become too large and
heavy to be supported by the rising air, and they then begin to fall as hail. As they slowly descend, the
hailstones may get caught in a violent updraft only to be carried upward once again to repeat the cycle.

20. Cumulonimbus clouds (thunderstorms) are more common in summer. In these clouds, strong
updrafts may keep ice particles suspended above the freezing level, where they acquire the ice coating
needed to form large hail stones.

21. Standard rain gauge, tipping bucket rain gauge, weighing-type rain gauge.

22. (a and b) Doppler radar is like conventional radar in that it can detect areas of precipitation and
measure rainfall intensity but Doppler radar uses the Doppler shift. The Doppler shift is the change in
wave frequency as an object is moving toward or away from the observer. Using the Doppler shift,
Doppler radar measures the speed at which falling rain is moving horizontally toward or away from the
radar antenna. Rainfall intensity and direction is calculated using algorithms.

Answers to Question for Thought

1. The surface area associated with large ice particles is greater than for small ice particles. Due to
the lightness of large ice particles and their greater surface area, air resistance plays a greater role as these
particles fall than it does for large water droplets..

2. The turbulent vertical motions and towering extent of a warm cumulus cloud will accelerate the
collision-coalescence process for producing rain. In a cold stratus cloud vertical motions are small, the
liquid water content is low, and the collision-coalescence process is not as effective in initiating
precipitation, especially when the air temperature is quite low.

3. This is an example of the curvature effect. The relative humidity in a cloud is measured with
respect to a flat water surface. When the air is saturated in a cloud (its relative humidity equals 100
percent based on a flat water surface), it is unsaturated with respect to curved droplets of pure water (as
are found inside of the cloud). Therefore, droplets of pure water are not in equilibrium (100% saturated
for a curved droplet) so water still evaporates.

4. In this example, the most important process would be the ice crystal process because the
collision-coalescence process requires that cloud droplets be of varying size so that drops will fall at
different speeds. Also, the liquid water content of ice-crystal process clouds is low, unlike the convective-
type clouds of the collision-coalescence process, making this an ice-crystal-type cloud.

5. In clouds that form over land there are larger concentrations of nuclei than in clouds that form
over water. Hence in clouds forming over land there are more droplets, but smaller, cloud droplets.
Because clouds that form over water usually contain fewer nuclei, they contain larger droplets and a
wider distribution of droplet sizes. This enhances the collision-coalescence process and makes these
clouds more efficient at producing rain.
6. The blizzard occurs about 4 km (13,000 ft) above the surface in the middle of a violent
thunderstorm.

7. This snowfall pattern could be the result of waves forming in the upper troposphere as air flows
from west to east over the mountains. Cirriform clouds form in the rising part of the wave (wave crest)
and seed ice crystals into a lower supercooled cloud layer, enhancing precipitation. The wave crests are
probably located above Denver, and above the region 150 km east of Denver. The area 60 miles east of
Denver is located in an area where no cloud seeding occurred.

8. A large drop has a greater surface area than a small drop, thus, due to the frictional drag of the air
droplets may tear into smaller drops.

9. Lead has a deleterious effect on the human body, especially the nervous system and kidneys.

10. "Holes" are occasionally produced in altocumulus clouds when cirriform clouds are above them.
Ice crystals fall from the cirriform clouds and mix with the supercooled cloud droplets of the altocumulus,
converting many water droplets into ice crystals. The ice crystals grow larger by the ice crystal process
and eventually fall from the altocumulus, leaving the appearance of a hole in the cloud. Another
possibility is that an aircraft has penetrated the altocumulus and either engine exhaust or vibrations (or
both) have changed the supercooled cloud droplets into ice.

11. The sounding would look similar to that of Figure 7.26 c below. Rain would fall from clouds
since temperatures are above freezing, but the surface would be cold enough (below freezing) for freezing
rain to occur once the droplets reached the ground.

12. When snow becomes mixed with sleet, it often indicates that warm air aloft has moved into the
region, causing the snowflakes to, at least partially, melt and then refreeze in the colder surface air.
Frequently this is the first indication that warm air is moving into the region. Often, continued influx of
warm air, first aloft, then at the surface, will raise the air temperature to the point that the snowflakes melt
and become raindrops.

13. Possible reasons that the measurements are different include the following: 1) the snow partially
melted; 2) the snow was blowing and drifting; 3) the water content of the snow changed over time; 4)
measurement error; and 5) the snow partially sublimated. The observer who made measurements every
hour likely captured more information regarding actual snowfall depth. How this measureable depth
relates to water should be measured by melting the snow and adding the water amounts. The
measurements should also be housed inside of a fence to block winds so that more accurate readings can
be obtained.

Answers to Critical Thinking Questions

Figure 7.9. No. The difference in saturation vapor pressures over supercooled water and ice reaches a
maximum at around -12°C. Close to 0°C this difference is much smaller.

Figure 7.29 Hail stones generally fall faster as they grow in size, although air resistance, winds, and
other factors determine their final decent speed. For measurements, a type of remote sensing device that
could determine the number, size, and speed of falling objects could be set-up to determine hail size and
acceleration near the surface.