ALCARDE

ULOGAN
• The total number of vapor
molecules around the droplet
remains fairly constant and
defines the droplet’s
saturation vapor pressure.
Since the droplet is in
equilibrium, the saturation
vapor pressure is also called
the equilibrium vapor
pressure.
 • Condensation begins on tiny particles called as
cloud condensation nuclei.
• Solute effect
• It is a condition that reduces the equilibrium vapor
pressure.

• Most clouds cannot produce precipitation. However,

clouds can develop and begin to produce rain in less
than an hour.
1. Collision and Coalescence Process
• It can play significant role in producing
precipitation.

Terminal velocity – the constant speed of

falling drop.

Coalescence – the merging of cloud

droplets by collision.
• Coalescence appears to be
enhanced if colliding droplets have
opposite electrical charges.
• A thick cloud with strong updrafts
maximizes the time cloud droplets
spend in the cloud and the size to
which they can grow.
 Drizzle – the lightest form of rain.
Warm clouds – clouds that have
above-freezing temperatures at all
levels.
Warm rain – rain that falls from
warm clouds.

• In a cloud with sufficient water, other

significant factors are:
1. The range of droplets sizes
2. The cloud thickness
3. The updrafts of the cloud
4. The electric charge of the droplets
and the electric field in the cloud
Ice-Crystal Process
• It is a process of rain formation that is
extremely important in middle and high
latitudes, where clouds extend upward
into regions where the air
temperatures is well below freezing.
Such clouds are called cold clouds.

 Glaciated – the region of a cloud where

only ice particles exist.
 Just as liquid cloud droplets form on condensation nuclei, ice
crystals may form in subfreezing air on particles called ice nuclei.
The number of ice-forming nuclei available in the atmosphere is
small, especially at temperatures above -10°C (14°F). However, as
the temperature decreases, more particles become active and
promote freezing.

Deposition nuclei – water vapor changes directly into ice without

going through the liquid phase.
Freezing nuclei – is the ice nuclei that promote the freezing of
supercooled liquid droplets.
 Some freezing nuclei cause freezing after they
are immersed in a liquid drop; some promote
condensation, then freezing; yet others cause
supercooled droplets to freeze if they collide with
them. This last process is called contact
freezing, and the particles involved are called
contact nuclei.
 The Freezing of Tiny
Cloud Droplets

Spontaneous or
homogeneous freezing – the
freezing of pure water without
the benefit of some nucleus.
For this type of freezing to
occur, enough molecules within
the water droplet must join
together in a rigid pattern to
form a tiny ice structure, or ice
embryo.
 Accretion – the process of
ice crystals growing larger
as they collide with
supercooled cloud droplets.
 Graupel (snow pellets) –
the icy matter that forms.
 Aggregation – the process
of ice crystals colliding then
sticking together.
 Snowflakes – the end
product of clumping together
of ice crystals.
 Cloud seeding and Precipitation
• The primary goal in many cloud seeding experiments
is to inject or seed a cloud with small particles that will
act as a nuclei, so that the cloud particles will grow
large enough to fall to the surface as precipitation.
• A cloud must be cooled or at least a portion of it must
be supercooled; the clouds must have too low ratio of
ice crystals to droplets
• because cloud seeding uses the ice-crystal (Bergeron)
process to cause the cloud particles to grow.
• Vincent Schaefer and Irving Langmuir seed a cloud
by dropping crushed pellets of dry ice from a plane.
• In 1947, Bernard Vonnegut demonstrated that silver
iodide (AgI) could be used as a cloud-seeding agent.
Silver Iodide causes ice crystals to form in two primary
ways:
1. Ice crystals form when silver iodide crystals come in
contact with supercooled liquid droplets.
2. Ice crystals grow in size as water vapor deposits onto
the silver iodide crystal.
• Clouds may be
seeded naturally. For
example, when cirriform
clouds lie directly above
a lower cloud deck, ice
crystals may descend
from the higher cloud
and seed the cloud
below.
 Precipitation in Clouds
• Precipitation may
begin only minutes
after the cloud forms
and may be initiated
by either the collision-
coalescence or the ice
crystal (Bergeron)
process.
Does Cloud Seeding Enhance Precipitation?

• Factors must be considered when evaluating cloud-seeding

experiments:
• The type of cloud • Droplet size distribution
• Its temperature • Updraft velocities in the
cloud
• Moisture content
• Cloud seeding does not increase precipitation, but seeding
under the right conditions may enhance precipitation between 5
percent and 20 percent.
• In summary, cloud seeding in certain instances may lead to
more precipitation; in others, to less precipitation, and, in still
others, to no change in precipitation amounts.
 Brief Review
• Cloud droplets are very small, much too small to fall as rain.
• The smaller the cloud droplet, the greater its curvature, and the
more likely it will evaporate.
• cloud droplets form on cloud condensation nuclei. Hygroscopic
nuclei, such as salt, allow condensation to begin when the
relative humidity is less than 100 percent.
• Cloud droplets, in above-freezing air, can grow larger as faster-
falling, bigger droplets collide and coalesce with smaller
droplets in their path.
• In the ice-crystal (Bergeron) process of rain formation, both ice
crystals and liquid cloud droplets must coexist at below-freezing
temperatures. The difference in saturation vapor pressure
between liquid and ice causes water vapor to diffuse from the
liquid droplets (which shrink) toward the ice crystals (which
grow).
• Most of the rain that falls over middle latitudes results from
melted snow that formed from the ice-crystal (Bergeron)
process.
• Cloud seeding with silver iodine can only be effective in coaxing
precipitation from a cloud if the cloud is supercooled and the
proper ratio of cloud droplets to ice crystals exists.
 Precipitation types
• Rain
- To be considered as rain, falling
drop must have a diameter equal
to, or greater than, 0.5 mm. If it is
smaller than 0.5 mm it is called as
drizzle.
Occasionally, the rain falling
from a cloud never reaches the
surface because the low humidity
causes rapid evaporation. As the
drops become smaller, their rate of
fall decreases, and they appear to
hang in the air as a rain streamer.
These evaporating streaks of
precipitation are called virga.
• Large raindrops have a terminal velocity of about 9 m/sec (20
mi/hr), and, if they encounter rising air whose speed is greater
than 9 m/sec, they will not reach the surface. If the updraft
weakens or changes direction and becomes a downdraft, the
suspended drops will fall to the ground as a sudden rain
shower.
Cloudburst – if the shower is excessively heavy

Acid rain – when rain combines with gaseous pollutants, such as

oxides of sulfur and nitrogen.
• Large raindrops have a
terminal velocity of about 9
m/sec (20 mi/hr), and, if
they encounter rising air
whose speed is greater
than 9 m/sec, they will not
reach the surface.
Are Raindrops Tear-shaped?
 Precipitation types
• Snow
- Much of the precipitation reaching
the ground actually begins as
snow. In summer, the freezing level
is usually above 3600 m (12,000
ft), and the snowflakes falling from
a cloud melt before reaching the
ground. However, in winter, the
freezing level is much lower, and
falling snowflakes have a better
chance of survival. Snowflakes can
generally fall about 300 m (1000 ft)
below the freezing level before
completely melting.
Fallstreaks
- when ice
crystals and
snowflakes fall
from high cirrus
clouds.
 Snowflakes and Snowfall
Snowflakes that fall through moist air that is slightly
above freezing slowly melt as they descend. These
large, soggy snowflakes are associated with moist air
and temperatures near freezing. However, when
snowflakes fall through extremely cold air with a low
moisture content, small, powdery flakes of “dry” snow
accumulate on the ground.
 If you catch falling snowflakes on
a dark object and examine them
closely, you will see that the most
common snowflake form is a fernlike
branching star shape called a
dendrite. Since many types of ice
crystals grow, why is the dendrite
crystal the most common shape for
snowflakes?
 flurries - These are usually light
showers that fall intermittently for
short durations and produce only
light accumulations.
 snow squall - A more intense snow
shower.

These brief but heavy falls of snow

are comparable to summer rain
showers and, like snow flurries,
usually fall from cumuliform clouds.
 Drifting snow is usually accompanied by
blowing snow; that is, snow lifted from the
surface by the wind and blown about in such
quantities that horizontal visibility is greatly
restricted. The combination of drifting and
blowing snow, after falling snow has ended,
is called a ground blizzard.
 Blizzard is a weather condition
characterized by low
temperatures and strong winds
(greater than 30 knots) bearing
large amounts of fi ne, dry,
powdery particles of snow, which
can reduce visibility to only a few
meters.