Willis Bopet the Water Droplet By: Ross & Bhargav
Deep in the heart of the rockies were large icy glaciers. Though they may seem as a motionless block of ice, it was the home to the many droplets.
Willis Bopet was among many newborn droplets who made their home in the holes of the large glaciers. The glacier was all he ever knew since the day he first woke up, and it was all he ever wanted to know. The glaciers were everything to him, and he believed he was going to stay there forever and ever, but little did he know the sun and its massive heat rays were about to take it all away....
One day, Willis decided to venture outside of the glacier, which had protected him from the sun all his life. He had wanted to see the sun but had been told by his friends that it was dangerous. "The sun will hurt you!" His friends said. "The heat transferred through the suns rays will make your body molecules move faster, and will make you fly to the sky!"
Willis didn't care. He began to slide through the glacier tunnels. Willis slid outside and flew into the air and back down. Willis looked around and he saw the light! He then saw something that amazed him. Other droplets were falling from the sky, as well as big ice crystals!
Willis began to run and prance around, but then the sun began to clear up and shine on him and the other droplets. Looking around, he saw the other droplets and hail, or what he heard was "precipitation", and realized the droplets were steaming up and flying into the sky! He began to run back inside the glacier, but he couldn't find a tunnel. He began to steam up and fly, becoming water vapor.
He rose higher and higher. He could hardly see his home anymore, it was so far down. He continued to rise. He started to notice a large amount of dust to his left. He noticed a large amount of other droplets clumping around the dust. A wind blew and he flew right into the group of water vapor.
When he blew into the clump of water vapor, another droplet, or a droplet that had become water vapor, acknowledged him. "Welcome to the cloud, kid!" he said. "I'm Larry. We, just like you, are experiencing the phase of the cycle where we water droplets are evaporated and become a cloud!" "A cloud?" asked Willis. "Haven't you been through the cycle before?" Said Larry. "You know, the water cycle?" "Well, when water droplets turn into water vapor they form clouds in the bottom most layer of the Earth the Troposphere. Above that is the Stratosphere, where you can see planes flying. Above that is the Mesosphere and then the Thermosphere. Clouds like us will only be in the Troposphere though."
"How are we gonna get back down?" Willis asked. "Depends on our dew point." replied Larry. "Thats the temperature we need to cool down to so that the air can't hold anymore of us, water vapor. When the air can't hold us anymore, we will condense back into droplets and fall." "So when will we hit the dew point?" Willis asked. "Well, it will be soon for us, since we have a high dew point, meaning the temperature where we are is close to the dew point needed to precipitate. A low dew point is when the air temperature is far from the dew point." Larry answered. Willis was getting bored by his talk.
"We will soon become part of a cloud since the water will clump together." Larry said. They began to clump together with all the other vapor, becoming a cloud. "You know what's happening?" Larry asked. "Since we are low in the sky we are-" Willis cut him off.
"I know. We are becoming the thin blanket-like stratus since we are low in the air. Since we are above the other vapor in our cloud, we probably will rise more to become the puffy cumulus clouds." Willis said. "Once we become gray, then we will fall. If we become higher and thicker, we will become nimbus and cause thunder, and if we become icy, we will be the thin and wispy ice clouds called cirris."
"I don't know how what caused us to come up here." Willis added.
"Well, there are a lot of factors that could have caused this, like convection, wind currents, ocean currents, fronts, or the distant effects of storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes." Said Larry.
"Convection happens when fluids, or gases and liquids, heat up. These fluids start moving in a circular pattern, as when they get heated they rises, and when they cool they sink. They go into a constant cycle of rising and sinking which causes things to move circularly." Larry told Willis. "This could have caused us to rise." "Interesting," said Willis.
"We are also carried by wind currents," Larry continued, "they push us around the skies. "Wind currents move in a pattern that never changes. Global Winds are winds that are so massive they are on a global scale. Global winds in the Northern hemisphere curve to the right and curve to the left. in the Southern Hemisphere." "Why doesn't any of the winds go North or South?" asked Willis. "Because the Earth rotates!" Larry replied.
"There are four types of global winds. Doldrums, surface winds at the equator which are calm and weak, Trade Winds, calm winds with few clouds located just north or south of the doldrums, Prevailing Westerlies, strong winds that blow eastwards, affect US weather, like our's, and are located north and south of the Trade Winds, and the Polar Easterlies which are cold but weak winds that blow westward and that are near the south and north poles." "Just like wind currents," added Larry, "there are water currents. Water currents carry water instead of air. They move water around, along with the heat that it holds, causing and area to be either warmer or colder, affecting the weather." "Thats a lot of info," said Willis. "There is even more," replied Larry. "There are fronts still left to talk about".
"The global winds can push large air masses.When two different air masses collide, it is called a front. Certain fronts can push water vapor, like us, up. There are four types of fronts. One is a cold front, where a fast moving cold air mass runs into a slowly moving air mass. Because cold air is denser, it slides under the warmer air mass, pushing the warm air up. This can cause clouds to form which leads to thunder storms, but there will be clear weather afterwards. A warm front happens when a fast moving warm air masses collides with a slowly moving colder air mass. Again, warmer air rises. This can cause clouds and precipitation for several days with clearer hot days following." said Larry.
"There is also a stationary front where two air masses don't have enough speed to push each other, ending in a stalemate where both air masses stand still." said Larry. "Finally, an occluded front happens when a warm air mass gets stuck between two other colder air masses. The warm air rises and loses connection with the ground. This can cause heavy rain." "So thats why we get so high up," said Willis. "In the atmosphere, there is also pressure," said Larry. "When pressure is high, pressure and air density are increasing and air moves down and rotates clockwise. This movement is known as a anticyclone. This motion is stable and causes a divergence."
"When pressure is low, pressure and air density are decreasing and air moves up and rotates counterclockwise." continued Larry. "This movement is known as a cyclone. This motion is unstable and causes a convergence." "So is that the only ways water vapor can rise and move?" asked Willis. "Well," replied Larry, "hurricanes and tornadoes can move us also."
"Hurricanes and tornadoes form from rotational movement in the air. Hurricanes form over the water, and tornadoes form over the ground. They can be very violent and scary, so I normally try to steer away from that type of weather." "Wow the cloud is getting pretty heavy and dense, huh?" said Willis. "Ya," replied Larry, "we will fall back to the Earth any second no-"
Suddenly, the cloud they were in burst, and they fell to the ground as droplets once again. Willis and larry fell into a large pipe, the tossed and rolled until the came to an air vent. The fell out of it, landing on a table. "Were in a meteorology lab!" Willis said.
"Oh no, how will we get home!?" Willis wondered. "Have no fear, meteorology is here!" Larry said. "We can use the meteorologists' satellites to get the images and weather info we need." "The maps they have use their advanced equipment such as barometers, thermometers, altimeters, and all other types of meters, so they should help us." Willis said.
"On the temperature maps, the isotherms, the lines showing equal temps and are dividing the temp zones, show that we are in a cool temp, so as long as we stay clear of the sun, we can get home." Larry said. "And on the pressure maps, the isobars, the lines around the pressure indicators showing constant pressure, show that we can make it back to the mountain glaciers by navigating the low pressure zones." Willis said.
"We just need to look at this weather map, and we're fine!" Willis said.
With the know-how to return home, Willis and Larry set out to return to the glaciers. They avoided all the high pressure areas, and made sure to stay clear of the sunlight. In no time, they reached the rockies. Willis ran to his glacier, but looked back and saw that larry was staying outside. "Larry, come on in!" Willis exclaimed.
"No, Willis, I enjoy the water cycle." Larry replied. "Goodbye." Larry snuck into a tunnel and as he slid, he saw larry evaporate yet again into the sky. Willis entered but couldn't help but feel bored inside the glacier, so he ran outside and evaporated into the sky for yet another cloudy adventure.
Bhargav Ross SLIDES 2 3 (Almost all of) 4 6 9 10 11 12 20 21 22 23 23 weather map, made using microsoft paint 24 25 Topics: ● Sun and Sun's Energy ● Weather Maps ● Isotherm and isobar ● Types of clouds ● Dew point ● How scientists get images ● Meteorological Instruments used by scientists ● Weather Map
SLIDES (Helped with) 4 5 7 8 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Topics: ● Atmosphere ● Convection ● Wind Currents ● Ocean Currents ● High Pressure ● Low Pressure ● Fronts ● Hurricanes ● Tornados