Jet Streams

-fast moving “rivers” of air

-occur in the upper sphere
-the behavior of the jet streams is variable and not well
understood.

Pilots reported that their aircraft had been held motionless by an

“invisible hand” while at full throttle. The invisible hand was really a jet
stream head wind.
 -clouds are classified according to their shape, appearance
and altitude.

4 BASIC ROOT NAMES:

• cirrus(ci)- meaning “curl” and referring to wispy, fibrous forms

•cumulus(Cu)- meaning “heap” and referring to billowy, round
forms
•stratus(St)- meaning “layer” and referring to stratified or layered
forms
•nimbus(Nb)- referring to a cloud from which precipitation is
threatens to occur.
Clouds are classified into four families:

1.High Clouds- are made up of ice crystals because of temperature

at their altitudes. Their base average about 6,000 meters above the
ground.

3 kinds of high clouds

-cirrus -which are thin, wispy, and feathery
-cirrocumulus – which are thin, patchy, and often form
rippling, wave like patterns
-cirrostratus –which are thin, sheet like. And looks like fine
veils or torn, wind-blown patches or gauze.

2. Middle Clouds- are basically stratus or cumulus clouds. Their

bases average about 3,000 meters above the ground.
they may either be:
-altostratus – dense veils or sheets of gray or blue, fibrous
or lightly stripped: through them the moon or the sun appears as if
seen through frosted glass
-altocumulus- patches or layers of puffy or roll-like clouds,
gray or whitish.
3. Low Clouds- Their bases average about 2,000 meters above the
ground.
3 main kinds
-stratus- low, dull, gray, quite uniform sheets, with the base
above the ground.
-nimbus stratus- true rain clouds, darker than the ordinary
stratus, and have a wet look.
-stratocumulus- irregular mass of clouds spread out in a
rolling or puffy layer.

4. Clouds with Vertical Development

-the clouds of massive grandeur are those with vertical
development. Formed by rising air currents, the billowy cloud is a
common sight on typical summer day. When the cumulus clouds turn
dark and forecast an impending storm, they are referred to as a
cumulonimbus clouds. These clouds are often called thunderheads.
-The water vapor in the air must condense to be visible as
droplets. Condensation requires a certain temperature, the
dew point.. Hence if most air is cooled below the dew
point, the water vapor contained therein will generally
condense into fine droplets and form a cloud. The air is
continually in motion, and when an air mass moves into a
cooler region, cloud formation may take place.
It is possible for an air mass containing water vapor to be cooled
below the dew point without condensing. In this state the air mass is
supersaturated, or super cooled. Water droplets from around
microscopic foreign particles already present in the air. These
particles on which the droplets form are called HYGROSCOPIC
NUCLEI.

- They present in the air in the form of dust, combustion residue,

salt from seawater evaporation, and so forth.

The droplets formed by the nucleation process are minute. They

fall very slowly and for fine drizzle. Because the condensation is
formed in the updrafts, the droplets or drops must form. This
condition may be brought about by two processes:

•Coalescence or the Bergeron process

 Coalescence is the formation of drops by the collision of the droplets, with
the result that the larger droplets grow at the expense of the smaller ones.

Bergeron process, named after the British meteorologist who suggested it, Is
probably the more important process for the initiation of the precipitation.
This process involves clouds that contain ice crystals in their upper portions
and have become super cooled in their lower portions. Mixing or agitation of
the clouds allows the ice crystals to come into contact with the super cooled
vapor. Acting as the nuclei, the ice crystals grow larger from the condensing
vapor. The ice crystals melt into large droplets in the lower portion of the
clouds and coalesce to fall as precipitation. Air currents are the normal
mixing agents.

Rainmaking is based on the essentials of the Bergeron process

3 Mechanisms by w/c air rises

● CONVECTIONAL PRECIPITATION
- is a result of convection cycles. This type of precipitation
predominantly occurs in the summer, because the localized heating is required
to initiate the convection cycle.

● OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION
-arises when air is forced to rise because of land forms, such as
mountain ranges. The wind blows along the surface of the earth and ascends
along geographical variations.

●FRONTAL PRECIPITATION
-results from the meeting of air masses of different temperatures.
Moving warm air flows up and over the cooler air because the warm air is
lighter. This ascent is associated with the
 After the rain, a rainbow is sometimes seen as a beautiful
atmospheric phenomenon. The colorful are of a rainbow across the sky is the
result of he several optical effects: refraction, the internal reflection and the
dispersion.

Following a rain, there are many tiny water droplets in the air. Sunlight
incident on the droplets produces a rainbow. But whether a rainbow is seen
depends on the relative positions of the sun and the observer. The sun is
generally behind you when you see a rainbow.

To understand the formation and the observation of a rainbow, consider what

happens when sunlight is incident on the water droplets. On entering the
droplet, the light is refracted and then dispersed into component colors as it
travels in the water. When the light enters the droplets above the critical angle,
it is internally reflected and the color components emerge form the droplet at
slightly different angles. Because of the conditions for refraction and the
internal reflection, the component colors lie in a narrow range of 40 to 42◦ for
an observer on the ground.