Causes of 'fog', 'mist', ‘smog’,

‘frost’ and 'haze';

FOG
o visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or
ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the
Earth's surface
o considered a type of low-lying cloud usually
resembling stratus
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o heavily influenced by nearby bodies of water,
topography, and wind conditions
o forms either by air cooling its dew point—resulting
in radiation fog, advection fog, or upslope fog—or
by evaporation and mixing, when moisture is
added to the air by evaporation and then mixes
with drier air to form evaporation fog or frontal
fog.
 Mist
is a phenomenon caused by small droplets of water suspended in air. Physically,
it is an example of a dispersion. It is most commonly seen where warm, moist
air meets sudden cooling, such as in exhaled air in the winter, or when throwing
water onto the hot stove of a sauna. Mists are produced as part of a natural
weather event — such as volcanic activity or radiation fog (the cool ground
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interacting with moisture in the air causing a fog just before sunrise). Mist is
also commonly found in the cold air above warm water.
 SMOG
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o is a type of intense air pollution.

o The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a contraction of the words
smoke and fog to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor.

o produced by a set of complex photochemical reactions involving volatile organic compounds

(VOCs), nitrogen oxides and sunlight, which form ground-level ozone.

o Smog-forming pollutants come from many sources such as automobile exhaust, power
plants, factories, and many consumer products, including paint, hairspray, charcoal starter
fluid, and chemical solvents,
FROST
o a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms
from water vapor in an above freezing atmosphere
coming in contact with a solid surface whose
temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a
phase change from water vapor to ice as the water
vapor reaches the freezing point.
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o usually forms when a surface cools through loss of
infrared radiation to a temperature which is colder
than the dewpoint of the air next to the surface, AND
the temperature of that surface is below freezing (32
deg F, or 0 deg. C).

o The source of this moisture is water vapor contained

in the air
HAZE
is traditionally an atmospheric
phenomenon in which dust, smoke,
and other dry particulates obscure
the clarity of the sky. Haze often
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occurs when dust and smoke
particles accumulate in relatively
dry air. Examples are forest fires
and air pollutant