Meteorology Exam 2

Geostationary Operational Enviornmental Satallites (GOES) are fixed above a single location and have 3 types of channels. What are they?

Visible, Infrared, Water Vapor

Where are the two main GOES located in the US?

One above the east one above the west

What channel tracks albedo?

Visible Channels

What Channel tracks the surface temp of the earth?

infrared channels

What channel shows where water vapor is by tracking and measuring the electromagnetic radiation from it?

Water Vapor Channel

On the visible channels what is usually shown as being white and what is shown as beeing darker?

Clouds and snow are seen as being lighter in color with thicker clouds being brighter and clear skies, the ground and more are seen as being dark.

On infrared channels what is a good determination of the temp?

Paying close attention to the color scale for instance the higher the cloud the cooler it is but could be portrayed as being red.

What are the three structures that make up a hurrican?

Eye, eyewall, spiral rain bands

Hurricanes rotate ______ clockwise

counter

What is the leading cause of death from the hazzards associated with hurricans?

Storm surge

When does storm surge occure?

Only when the wind is pointing towards shore

In a catagory 1 hurrican the storm surge gets ___ ft tall, in a catagory 3 it gets ___ ft tall, and in a catagory 5 it gets ___ ft tall.

4 ft 12 ft, 20ft

Hurrican catagories are determined by _____

wind speed

In a catagory 1 hurrican the wind speed is

75-95 mph

In a catagory 2 hurrican the wind speed is ______

96-110 mph

in a catagory 3 hurrican the wind speed is _____

111-130 mph

In a catagory 4 hurrican the wind speed is ____-

131-154 mph

In a catagory 5 hurrican the wind speed is

155+

When it comes to the tornados associated with hurricans they usually form in the ____ ____ quadrant of the storm.

right front

What is needed in order for a hurrican to form?

Low lattitude near the equator

Warm waters of at least 20 degree C

Very little wind

The directions of hurricans usually move _____ to _____ (away/ towards) the equator towards the poles.

east to west away

When is hurrican season and why?

It is typically in september and october because the water has had all summer to warm up.

What is the time line of how a hurrican forms?

1. begins as a cluster of thunderstorms which cuases the pressure to lower.

2. Coriollis helps the rotation to begin

3. the Thunderstorms consollidate around the center of rotation giveing us the eye wall and rain bands

what is coriolis?

It causes objects to deviate from a direct path in the norther hemispher it causes things to deviate to the right.

explain how pressure gradient force plays a role in hurrican development.

when their is high pressure in one area this means their are alot of air molecules bunched together that will want to spread out and move towards area of lower pressure. This causes the lower pressure present in hurricane development.

How do coriolis and presure gradient force work together to create the spiral counter clockwise rotation?

when coriolis and presure gradient forces is combined the winds spiral counter clockwise (north rotation) and the pressure is pushing air molecules up.

What are the four things that cause an air parcel to rise?

1. Convection

2. topography (warm air hits mountains)

3. Convergence of air at low point

4. lifting above a front

what does maritime mean?

air mass over ocean

what does polar mean?

air mass that is cold

what does continental mean?

air mass over land

what does tropical mean?

air mass that is warm

In a moist and cold area what air mass would you see?

maritime polar

In a moist and warm area what air mass would you see?

maritime tropical

In a dry and cold area what air mass would you see

continental polar

in a dry and warm area what air mass would you see

continental tropical

What is the relationship between relative humidity and the LCL?

when RH is high the LCL is low and vice versa

what is the relationship between dewpoint and LCL hight?

when the dewpoint depresses, the difference between temp and dewpoint is high, the LCL is higher

Fronts are boundries between _____ ____

air massess

what are four key traits of fronts.

1. Temp Change

2. Dewpoint change

3. shift in wind direction

4. where the cloud and percipitation are

why are thunderstorms associated with cold fronts

cold air kicks warm air up

why are warm fronts longer then cold fronts

they are ineffective at kicking cold air up

In a mid latitude cyclon the cold front extends _____ while the warm front extends ______

south and east

A mid latitude cyclone rotates in a _______ rotation and centers around a _____ pressure area.

counterclockwise low

what are the four types of hydrometers

1. Rain

2. Sleet

3. Freezing rain

4. snow

All hydrometer types start as a _________ in the clouds due to cooler temps.

snowflakes

All our parcipitation types depends on the

surface temp

What parcipitation falls as a rain drop but them freezes on contact becuase the surface temp is below freezing?

freezing rain

What parcipitation falls as a rain droplet but freezes before it hits the ground

sleet

What is the reason for freezing rain and sleet

Warm front creates a cool surface temp by creating a pocket of warm air high in the atmosphere over a cold front.

What does RADAR stand for and what does it detect

Radio detection and ranging it detects what hydrometers are in the air

How does a Radio Detection and Range work?

sends a pulse of energy that comes in contact with any possible hydrometers in the air. Which in turns sends the signal back. depending on the strength is how we know which hydrometer it is.

From a RADAR the reflectivity is measured in DBZ list the hydrometers in order from lowest energy reflection to highest.

snow, freezing rain, rain, hail

What ingredients are needed to make a thunderstorm

Moisture, instability, and a lifting mechanism

what are the four lifting mechanisms?

Differential heat

Terrian

converging winds

fronts

What are the stages of a thunderstorm and what happens in each

cumulus

Domindated by updraft and warm moist air rising

Mature

Precipitation begins to hit ground create a down draft(pulling surrounding air down)

Dissipating

Dominated by down draft no more updraft

How are shelf clouds created

when the down draft creates a gust edge it pushes hot air up!

What are the four types of thunderstorms?

1. Single cell

2. Multicell cluster

3. multicell line

4. super cell

What is the squal line and and where is parcipitation havies? What is this called

A squal line is a multicell line storm with parcipitation heaviest at the east edge and light rain following. This is called convergence

What are the hazards of thunder storms

1. heavy rain

2. Hail

3. Lightning

4. Microburst

What is a microburst

Strong down draft that when it hits the ground it has destructive winds

What is hail?

rain that gets caught in updraft and freezes and falls.

How can you tell how many times hail has been cycled through?

looking at the rings.

What does the lifted index mesure and what is the general rule for instability?

measures low level air parcel instability, general rule is positve numbers mean stable negative unstable

a postive LI means what in relation to the air parcel and its surrounding enviornments?

A postive LI means that the air parcel is either cooler or the same temp as its sorrunding enviormental air.

A negative LI means what in relation to the air parcel and its surrounding enviorments?

A negative LI means the air parcel is warmer then its enviorment causing it to rise.

What does instability mean?

warm air parcel rises

what is CAPE?

the amount of fuel available to a developing thunderstorm. More specifically, it describes the instability of the atmosphere and provides an approximation of updraft strength within a thunderstorm.

Severe Weather Topics

National Weather Service (.gov)

https://www.weather.gov › ilx › swop-severetopics-cape