REVIEWER - METEOROLOGY

Precipitation - awesome atmospheric phenomena that everyone has encounter

Rain and snow are the common examples of precipitation
Precipitation follows after condensation
To achieve precipitation, cloud drop or ice crystal must grow in size.

Philippines experiences monsoon, the northeast and southwest monsoons.

southwest monsoon (habagat).
The Amihan season (NE monsoon)

• Precipitation- Any form of water particles—liquid or solid—that falls from the atmosphere and
reaches the ground.
• Also termed as, “hydrometeors”.
• basic input to the hydrology.

Precipitation Processes (Enumeration)

• Lifting mechanisms to cool the air.
• Formation of cloud elements (Condensation nuclei)
• Growth of cloud elements
• Sufficient accumulation of cloud elements.

Lifting Mechanisms (Enumeration)

• Frontal (cyclonic) lifting
• Orographic lifting
• Convective lifting

Cyclonic or Frontal precipitation results when the leading edge of a warm, moist air mass (warm front)
meets a cool and dry air mass (cold front).
Orographic Lifting
• It results when warm moist air of the ocean is forced to rise by large mountains.
Convective lifting
 • Convectional precipitation results from the heating of the earth's surface.

Aerosols – minute particles suspended in the atmosphere.

 can be natural or artificial.
• Ex of natural aerosols: fog, dessert dust, smoke from forest fires and volcanic ash.
• Ex of artificial aerosols: haze (smoke pollution), smog, particulate air pollutants and
smoke.
• Natural aerosols—are the most common condensation nuclei in pristine environments.
• Artificial Aerosols or Polluted air, in contrast, usually contains much higher concentrations of
water-soluble particles

Types of aerosols
• Hygroscopic nuclei – nuclei that are attractive to water vapor molecules, and act as
collection sites for condensation
• Hydrophobic nuclei – nuclei that are repellent to water and therefore cannot act as
sites for condensation
• Nucleation- formation of either a new thermodynamic phase or a new structure via self-
assembly or self-organization.

Kelvin effect describes the relationship between surface curvature

Raoult's law states that the vapor pressure of a solvent above a solution is equal to the vapor pressure
Solute effect. The reduction of saturation vapor pressure by introducing a solute
Solvent: The chemical that another chemical is being dissolved into
Solute: The chemical that is being dissolved in the solvent.

Curvature effect vs Solute effect

• The curvature effect increases the saturation vapor pressure and has the greatest
impact for small droplets.
• The solute effect decreases the saturation vapor pressure and also has the greatest
impact for small droplets.
• Kohler theory- describes the process in which water vapor condenses and forms liquid cloud
drops, and is based on equilibrium thermodynamics.
Collision-coalescence-is a process of raindrop formation in warm clouds (above 0° C) in which large
cloud droplets collide and join together with smaller droplets to form a raindrop
  Collision – when cloud droplets collide with each other
 Collision begins at radius of 18 microns
 Collector drops collide with smaller drops

Terminal velocity is the maximum velocity attainable by an object as it falls through a fluid (air is the
most common example)

Clouds may be composed of: (might enumeration)

• Liquid water
• Supercooled water
• Ice

Supercooling, also known as undercooling is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid or a gas
below its freezing point without it becoming a solid. This can reach as low as -18oC.
Supercooled- Water droplets existing at temperatures below freezing.

Types of Ice nuclei

• Deposition nuclei -Tiny particles (ice nuclei) upon which an ice crystal may grow by the
process of deposition
• Freezing nuclei - Particles that promote the freezing of supercooled liquid droplets.
• Contact nuclei- particles that cause supercooled droplets to freeze and collide with
them.
Saturation vapor pressure of ice is less than that of supercooled water and water vapor
Bergeron Process is a process of precipitation formation in which ice crystals grow in preference to
supercooled water droplets in a mixed (i.e., water and ice) cloud.
Also known as Wegener-Bergeron and Findeisen Process

Riming (Accretion)– ice collides with supercooled

water which freezes on contact.
Aggregation – ice crystals collide and stick
together.

Precipitation Variation
 Precipitation varies by place and time. There are some places of the earth which receives higher
precipitation rate.

Precipitation Distribution
Approximately 121,000 cu mi of water falls as precipitation each year; 95,000 cu mi of it over the
oceans.

Precipitation Measurement
• Amount of precipitation
• Intensity of precipitation
• Duration of precipitation
• Arial extent of precipitation

Types of Precipitation
• Liquid precipitation: Snow (SN)
Drizzle (DZ) Snow Grains (SG)
Rain (RA) Sleet/Ice pellets (PL)
• Freezing precipitation: Hail (GR)
Freezing drizzle (FZDZ) Snow pellets or Graupel (GS)
Freezing rain (FZRA) Ice crystals (IC)
• Frozen precipitation:

Drizzle - is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are less than 0.5
millimeters in diameter
Rain - is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are greater than 0.5
millimeters in diameter.
Freezing drizzle -is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are less than
0.5 millimeters in diameter.
Freezing rain- is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are greater than
0.5 millimeters in diameter
Snow- is an aggregate of ice crystals that form into flakes. Snow forms at temperatures below freezing.
Snow grains - White or opaque particles of ice less than 1 mm in diameter that usually fall from stratus
clouds, and are the solid equivalent of drizzle.
Sleet/Ice pellets- Frozen raindrops that form as cold raindrops (or partially melted snowflakes) refreeze
while falling through a relatively deep subfreezing layer
Hail- is dense precipitation ice that is that least 5 mm in diameter. It forms due to ice crystals and
supercooled water that freeze or stick to the embryo hail stone.
Graupel- Brittle, soft white (or opaque), usually round particles of ice with diameters less than 5 mm
that generally fall as showers from cumuliform clouds; they are softer and larger than snow grains.
Ice Crystals - Also called diamond dust. They are small ice crystals that float with the wind.

Rain
• Rain is common in the tropics where warm clouds predominate.
• Virga - precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground
• Steady (stratiform) rain – rain that lasts for long periods of time (hours)
• Showers (cumuliform) rain – rain that is short-lasting (minutes)
Rain gauge - is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to measure precipitation (e.g.
rain) in a certain amount of time.

Types of Rain gauge

Standard rain gauge Optical rain gauge
Weighing precipitation gauge Acoustic rain gauge
Tipping bucket rain gauge
Doppler Radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects
at a distance.
Acid rain is a cloud droplets or raindrops combining with gaseous pollutants, such as oxides of sulfur and
nitrogen, to make falling rain (or snow) acidic—pH less than 5.0.

Sources of acid rain

• Natural (volcanoes and decaying vegetation)
• Anthropogenic ( power plants, cars, coal etc)

Effects of Acid rain

• acidification of lakes and streams
• damage of trees and other vegetation
• accelerates the decay of building materials and paints, including irreplaceable buildings,
statues, and sculptures that are part of our nation's cultural heritage
 • kills microorganisms, aquatic plants and fishes.
• contribute to visibility degradation and harm public health
Snow
Snow results from the Bergeron process, riming, and aggregation.
Snow may fall normally above freezing point (2oC)

Common ice crystal forms

1. Plate
2. Column
3. Dendrite
4. Needle

Types of Cloud Seeding

 Static cloud seeding involves spreading a chemical like silver iodide into clouds.
 Dynamic cloud seeding aims to boost vertical air currents
 Hygroscopic cloud seeding disperses salts through flares or explosives in the lower portions of
clouds.
Effects of Cloud seeding

• It uses potentially harmful chemicals.

• It is not really proven to be effective.
• It may affect the weather in a negative way.
• It can pose a negative risk for living organisms.
• It requires huge amounts of investments.
• It can lead to flooding and undesirable weather problems