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cloud formation, humidity & lapse rates, types of clouds - Coggle…
cloud formation, humidity & lapse rates
solar radiation heats the ground, the air in contact with the ground heats up, warm air rises
the parcel of air will have high amount of energy as the parcel is closer to the surface it is smaller leading the particles when they are heated up to gain kinetic energy and collide more with eachother and the parcel of air
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dry adiabatic lapse rate- parcels of air that are dry, which means they haven't reached 100% relative humidity and so are not condensing. they cool at 10' for every 1000m gained in height
saturated adiabatic lapse rate- is when a parcel of air is at their absolute humidity, when it is saturated condensation occurs therefore clouds form, parcels cool at around 7' for every 1000m gained
orographic rainfall, rain forced to move over mountains and releases rainfall due to this
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absolute humidity is the total amount of water vapour that a parcel of air can hold .
this is measured as grams of moisture per cubic meter of air (g/m3)
warmer the air more water vapour it can hold, colder air takes less water vapour to become saturated.
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saturated air cools slower as condensation release latent heat into the atmosphere in the process of turning the vapour into liquid
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types of clouds
sun heats the ground, ground heats the air, warm air rises= convection
convective clouds, fluffy big- need warm surface, typically occur in summer as temperatures tend to be higher
advection= warm air mass horizontally going over a cool surface, reaches its dew point and turns into low level cloud (fog)
orographic rainfall- uplift of moist rising air is forced upwards by a change in relief, often a mountain, this process causes the parcel of air to expand adiabatically, condenses and forms clouds. air on the other side of mountain sinks and warms up, dry descending air.
frontall- where two air masses of different properties meet eachother and force air to rise, such as cold air meeting warm air
warn front- warm air is advancing slides above the cold air, stratiform clouds are quite common due to the gentle angle at which warm air rises over cold
cold air- cold front moves faster than warm front, warmer air is ahead of them is pushed siginifacntly upwards quite rapidly
cumuliform clouds= steep angle and so sudden uplift of air, creates tall and deep clouds