Informational Book Anirudh Kantareddy Krishnasai Chalasani
Convection Currents Within The Atmosphere ● ● ●
The Sun provides energy that drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents. Convection is the direct heat transfer between 2 objects. Example: The Sun transferring its sun rays through the layers of the atmosphere Convection currents interact to form weather patterns and climates by moving the moisture and air around.
Caption: This picture shows convection by showing the different pressures between warm and cold air to reach the ground surface. (Warmer air is less dense, and cold air is more dense.
Tornadoes ● ● ●
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Tornadoes are nature's most violent storms. Tornadoes can cause fatalities and devastate a neighborhood in seconds. A tornado appears as a rotating, funnel-shaped cloud that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling winds that can reach 300 miles per hour. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long. Tornadoes interact to form weather patterns and climates by moving in a rotating cloud to form disastrous events.
Caption: This picture shows an example of a tornado because as you can clearly see, it says that the tornado is a funnel cloud with upward current and has descending air.
Hurricanes â—?
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A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone or severe tropical storm that forms in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. A typical cyclone is accompanied by thunderstorms, and in the Northern Hemisphere, a counterclockwise circulation of winds near the Earth's surface. Hurricanes can cause catastrophic damage to coastlines and several hundred miles inland. Hurricanes can produce winds exceeding 155 miles per hour as well as tornadoes. Additionally, hurricanes can create storm surges along the coast and cause extensive damage from heavy rainfall. Floods and flying debris from the excessive winds are often the deadly and destructive results of these weather events.
Wind Currents ●
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Wind currents are generally large-scale wind systems of the atmosphere, for example, the westerlies, trade winds, equatorial easterlies, polar easterlies, . These are the 4 major wind belts that encircle the hemisphere whereas 2 wind belts are in each hemisphere. All 4 wind belts move north in the northern summer and south in the northern winter. Winds are named after the direction they blow.
Caption: This map is used to show the 4 major wind belts and the place of them on the 2 hemispheres.
Ocean Currents â—?
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves,wind, Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun.
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There are two types of ocean currents: - Surface Currents - These waters make up about 10% of all the water in the ocean. - These waters are the upper 400 meters of the ocean. - Deep Water Currents - These waters make up the other 90% of the ocean. - These waters move around the ocean basins by density driven forces and gravity. - These deep waters sink into the deep ocean basins at high latitudes where the temperatures are cold enough to cause the density to increase.
High Pressure Areas ●
A high-pressure area, also known as a high or anticyclone is an area where the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the planet is greater than its surrounding environment.
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Winds inside high-pressure areas flow outward from the higher pressure areas near their centers towards the lower pressure areas further from their centers. Gravity increases the forces causing this movement, because the higher pressure compresses the column of air near the center of the area into greater density – and so greater weight compared to lower pressure, lower density, and lower weight of the air outside the center.
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Unlike areas of low pressure, the absence of clouds means that areas due to high pressure experience extremes in seasonal temperatures since there are no clouds to block incoming solar radiation or trap outgoing longwave radiation at night, Thus such areas have higher high temperatures and lower lows.
Low Pressure Areas â—?
A low pressure system, or "low", is an area where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of the area surrounding it. Low pressure areas are generally cloudy/rainy areas, where strong areas of low pressure bring our stormiest weather. That's because it's an area of rising air, and as air rises, it condenses into clouds and rain. Air moves from higher pressure to lower pressure, so if you have a high and a low pressure area nearby, it can be windy as air rushes between the two.
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In addition, areas prone to low pressure do not have extreme diurnal (day vs. night) nor extreme seasonal temperatures because the clouds present over such areas reflect incoming solar radiation back into the atmosphere so they cannot warm as much during the day (or in the summer) and at night they act as a blanket, trapping heat below.
Cold Front â—?
A cold front is the transition zone where a cold air mass is replacing a warmer air mass. Cold fronts generally move from northwest to southeast. The air behind a cold front is colder and drier than the air ahead of it. When a cold front passes through, temperatures can drop more than 15 degrees within the first hour.
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Cold fronts usually bring cold weather, precipitation, and winds. It is represented as triangles connected together.
Warm Front â—?
A warm front is the transition zone where a warm air mass is replacing a cold air mass. Warm fronts generally move from southwest to northeast and the air behind a warm front is warmer and more moist than the air ahead of it. When a warm front passes through, the air becomes noticeably warmer and more humid than it was before.
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Warm fronts bring warm weather, humidity, and clear skies. It is represented by circles connected to each other.
Occluded Front â—?
An occluded front is the boundary that separates the new cold air mass (to the west) from the older cool air mass already in place north of the warm front. Symbolically, an occluded front is represented by a solid line with alternating triangles and circles pointing the direction the front is moving. On colored weather maps, an occluded front is drawn with a solid purple line.
Isotherms â—?
Isotherms are lines of equal temperature. They are often used on weather maps by meteorologists to give a large scale view of temperatures across the U.S. If you have ever looked at a weather map in a newspaper, the isotherms are used to divide the color-filled temperatures.
Caption: In the map across, temperatures in the 60's may be represented by a yellow color, while temperatures in the 70's may be represented by an orange color. The line that divides the yellow from the orange is the isotherm. All of the locations between the 60 degree isotherm and the 70 degree isotherm will have a temperature between 60 and 70 degrees.
Isobars â—?
Isobars are lines of equal pressure on a weather map. They can be used to find areas of low and high pressure over a broad area (such as the U. S.), and they can tell us how intense the system may be. On weather maps, you may have noticed areas that have a large "L" or "H" over a region with lines circling around them. The "L" stands for low pressure whereas the "H" stands for high pressure. The lines circling the letters are called isobars.
Weather Map Example
Credits Krishnasai:
Anirudh:
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