Science Saturdays #2

1. Science Saturdays #2 Earth’s SkyHurricane Warning – Should You Evacuate? Lynne M. BaileyCSD 9 Title IIB STEM Grant lbaile04@nyit.edu

2. Paperwork Introduction Protocols Online learning style test Objectives Pre-test Meterology 101 Activities Weather devices Exploring online activities and resources Post-test Reflection and classroom application Share-out Agenda

3. Introductions • Paperwork done? • How do you learn? http://www.educationplanner.com/ • Earthquake preparedness quiz online athttp://www.tvfr.com/ click on “April is Earthquake Awareness Month” and click on quiz • Protocols – leave no tracks! • Expectations?

4. Who Could Forget

5. Essential Questions • Is there an hurricane in your future? Do you need an umbrella today? • Can we predict hurricanes or weather in general • How does weather shape geography? • How does weather relate to basic earth systems? • How do hurricanes and other atmospheric events effect populations? • Others?

6. Is it coming your way? Track hurricane path Find patterns/causes Video (primary) The sky above – Earth’s atmosphere Weather basics Weather measuring tools Other media in the classroom Podcast Videos Current events More about weather Meteorology 101

8. Is It Coming Your Way? • Using maps, track a hurricane • Data easily found on the WWW • Historical tracks: http://maps.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/viewer.html • Create a hurricane

9. Where’s It Going?

10. Year 1999 Tropical Storms

11. Year 2005 Tropical Storms

12. Donna 1960 Agnes 1972 Bob 1991 Allison 2001 Floyd 1999 Betsy Online Cyclone Trackers

13. Is There a Pattern? • Where do they form? Tropical storm basins …

14. Hurricane Hunters • Visit the Hurricane Hunters website

15. Why there? • Warm water • Surface water temperature must be at least 80o F • Coriolis Effect • Caused by Earth's rotation from west to east • Try this animation

16. Hurricane Characteristics • No fronts • Winds weaken with height • Centers are warmer than their surroundings • Form under weak high-altitude winds • Air sinks at the center of a hurricane • Main energy source is the latent heat of condensation • Weaken rapidly over land

17. Hurricane Structures • Eye – Calm center • Eyewall – Surrounds eye, strongest winds concentrated here • Feeder /rain bands - long zones of clouds, showers and thunder storm activity that get their moisture over warm water and drive energy into the storm • Storm surge - mound of water that is pushed landward by the winds of a hurricane

18. Hurricane Identifiers • Location: begin over tropical waters • Magnitude: wind speed • Path: unpredictable, but usually managed • Watch: 36 hours • Warning: 24 hours

19. Hurricane Recipe

20. Hurricanes from Brain Pop 3.30

21. Hurricane Recipe • Four conditions • Low pressure (reinforced by the hurricane) • Warm temperatures (often in summer) • Moist area (over the ocean) • Tropical wind patterns (close to the Equator

22. Hurricane Growth • Begin when raindrops condense out of warm, moist air • Heat is released, which then makes the air convect • In a low pressure zone near the equator, this can create an organized system of clouds and storms called a tropical depression (low pressure) • As more moist air is swept up and more rain condenses out, the depression gets stronger, creating a tropical storm • If enough heat is added to the system, it becomes a hurricane with strong winds, an eye, and storm surge

23. Watch One from NASA • http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0915isabel/addl.html

24. Hurricane Categories

25. What’s In Our Sky?

26. Earth’s Atmosphere • Five layers distinguished by • Thermal characteristics (temperature changes) • Chemical composition • Movement • Density

27. Click to Play on the Web

28. Weather Current State of the Atmosphere Driving the Water Cycle

29. Current Conditions • Air movement • Wind speed & direction • Cloud cover • Air pressure • Temperature • Relative humidity • Precipitation amount & type

30. Air Masses • Large body of air that takes on the characteristics of the area over which it forms • Classified according to their source areas • Fronts are narrow regions that separates two air masses of different densities • In the northern hemisphere, in a surface high-pressure system, air sinks and rotates in a clockwise direction • Cold air is heavier and sinks, pushing warm air up and away

31. Fronts • Cold front - Warm air lifted up over cold air • Warm front - Warm air displaces cold air and it develops a gradual frontal slope • Occluded - Warm air is squeezed upward between two cold air masses • Stationary-neither cold or warm air advances

32. Wind • Sun’s energy activates wind • Jet streams • Narrow bands of fast, high-altitude westerly winds are called jet streams • Earth has two • Coriolis forces due to Earth’s rotation effect patterns

33. Temperature • How fast or slow molecules are moving • Faster = warmer • Slower = colder

34. Humidity: Water Vapor in Air • Ratio of water vapor in a volume of air relative to how much water vapor that volume of air is capable of holding is called relative humidity • Troposphere layer of the atmosphere contains most of the water vapor in Earth's atmosphere

35. Clouds • Condensation around dust and pollen particles • Classified by altitude of formation and shape • When condensation takes place, latent heat is released and warms the air • Four basic types: cirrus, nimbus, cumulous, and stratus

36. How Clouds Form • When air is cooled to its dewpoint or the temperature, if the air is cooled, it reaches saturation. • Air can reach saturation in a number of ways, most commonlythrough lifting

37. Air Pressure • High-pressure systems usually associated with fair weather • Low-pressure systems associated with clouds and precipitation

38. Precipitation • Various forms and amounts • Rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog • Water cycle interaction • Evaporation & transpiration • Condensation • Precipitation • Runoff, ground water

39. Water Vapor in the Air

40. Weather Tools For the Classroom Go to http://www.k12science.org/ Click on Curriculum> Real Time Data Projects> Weather Scope> Student Activities

41. Anemometer Procedure (click image) • Blow on the anemometer or turn an electric fan on low to make sure that it spins easily • How many times the anemometer will spin in one minute? • Can you make a statement connecting the number of spins of your anemometer and the speed of the wind? 

42. Four cups catch the wind and cause the anemometer to spin Cups inward curve receives most of the force of the wind That's what makes the cups move More spins per minute, the greater the wind velocity NOTE: When using this anemometer, 10 turns per minute means the wind speed is about one mile per hour. Very useful to use a commercial anemometer to calculate a better determination For example, "when our anemometer read 20 spins a minute, the commercial anemometer read 2 miles per hour." How it Works

43. Beaufort Wind Scale • Wind speed measured on a scale of 0-12 based on visual clues originally developed in 1806 by Sir Francis Beaufort • Developed rating system to make accurate recording of wind speed • Developed for sailors, but modified by the National Weather Service for use on land http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/weatherproj2/en/popup/beaufort.shtml

45. Dry Barometer Measure Air Pressure • How does this measure air pressure? • High pressure will make the balloon seal dip causing the straw go up • Low pressure will make the balloon puff up causing the straw to go down

46. Barometer • Air moves from high pressure to low pressure

47. Thermometer • Measures temperature • Temperature is a measure of how fast or slow molecules move

49. Rain Gauge • Measures amount of rain • You can also build a snow gauge

50. Wind Vane • Record the wind’s direction