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AOS 100: Weather and Climate

AOS 100: Weather and Climate. Instructor: Nick Bassill Class TA: Courtney Obergfell. Miscellaneous. Homework due next Tuesday Extra Credit Offer: - A brief paper (roughly 3-4 pages), with references on a weather topic of your choice

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AOS 100: Weather and Climate

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  1. AOS 100: Weather and Climate Instructor: Nick Bassill Class TA: Courtney Obergfell

  2. Miscellaneous • Homework due next Tuesday • Extra Credit Offer: - A brief paper (roughly 3-4 pages), with references on a weather topic of your choice - However, it must be related back to something we’ve done in class - I will grade it, and the grade will equal 50% of your lowest exam grade - More details to follow soon!

  3. Review of November 10th: Thunderstorms • Thunderstorms are simply storms which include thunder • Most thunderstorms aren’t severe (i.e. damaging), although they may have gusty winds, heavy rain, or small hail • Severe thunderstorms can have strong winds, large hail, or tornadoes, and require specific atmospheric conditions to exist • Areas in the southeastern part of the country have the most thunderstorms per year, but areas in the central plains have the most severe thunderstorms per year

  4. Review Continued • We commonly call non-severe thunderstorms “air-mass thunderstorms” • These thunderstorms begin with warm, moist air rising (the “updraft”) • However, once rain starts falling, the updraft is cut off, and the air near the surface is cooled (by evaporation) • This causes the thunderstorm to dissipate after about an hour

  5. Review Continued • Severe thunderstorms generally require certain atmospheric characteristics: large values of CAPE, wind shear, and lots of moisture • Wind shear can be speed shear, directional shear, or both • Veering winds indicates the winds rotate clockwise with height, and backing winds indicate the winds rotate counterclockwise with height • Severe weather is generally never found with backing winds (either veering winds or just speed shear is most conducive)

  6. Speed Shear

  7. Directional Shear

  8. From: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/images/statewidetrank_200910.jpg

  9. From: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/images/statewidetrank_200910.jpg

  10. Air Mass Thunderstorms The cold air from the rainfall cuts off the updraft, causing the thunderstorm to die

  11. Severe Thunderstorms For severe thunderstorms, the change in the wind with height forces the downdraft to be separate from the updraft, which allows the storm to live longer and become severe

  12. Common Setup

  13. Detecting Severe Weather • For meteorological considerations, there are two primary types of remotely sensed observations: • RADAR • Satellite

  14. RADAR • RADAR is an acronym for “RAdio Detection And Ranging” • RADAR uses radiowaves or microwaves to detect objects • RADAR dishes send out a pulse of electromagnetic radiation, which can be reflected back by objects • The length of time it takes for the pulse to return, as well as the strength of the return pulse indicate how near/far and how big the object(s) are - From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar

  15. Pictures From:http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/radar/DI90G1.jpg http://www.bergenskywarn.org/Pages/BergenSkywarnUptonOpenHouse2001.htm

  16. http://www.tropicalstorms.us/current/radar.gif

  17. Thunderstorms over Michigan

  18. Doppler RADAR • Doppler RADAR makes use of the “Doppler Effect” to determine whether objects are traveling towards or away from the radar site • Doppler RADAR measures the change in wavelength of the incoming signal (compared with the signal that was sent out) http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/Images/doppler.gif

  19. Velocity (from the Doppler RADAR) This feature is extremely useful for detecting tornadoes – many tornadoes are first “detected” using this method

  20. Types of Severe Weather • For our purposes, we can consider two types of severe weather: • A squall line is mostly linear continuous line of thunderstorms associated with speed wind shear, and they often produce strong straight line winds • Supercells are smaller storms associated with directional wind shear, and often cause tornados and large hail

  21. A Squall Line http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/classes/met130/notes/chapter14/graphics/squall_line_ex/squall_line1.gif

  22. http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2004/images/bowecho.radar.gifhttp://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2004/images/bowecho.radar.gif

  23. A Supercell

  24. A Supercell Reflectivity: Velocity: We call this feature a “velocity couplet”, and it often signifies a tornado From: http://kkd.ou.edu/METR%202603/supercell%20velocity.jpg

  25. Tornadoes • Tornadoes are caused by the creation of a rotating updraft

  26. A Supercell (with tornado) Fig. 14-46, p. 402

  27. } Tornado Wall Cloud

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