7th Carrie and Meghan- Steve's Great Adventure

Steve's Great Adventure!!!!!!!!!

Megan Arimanda and Carrie Zhu

On a foggy day, Steve, the human, was cloud-gazing and took note of the fog settling around the area.

He asked himself, "What is going on in the sky?"

Suddenly, he started to levitate and a voice spoke to him, "I am Columbus the cloud. I am here to teach you all about meteorology."

Steve was surprised, but he stayed calm.

"I am a cumulus cloud." said Columbus.

We are formed out of water droplets in the troposphere. I have relatives named Stratus and Cirrus. You saw Stratus when you looked at the fog. Cirrus is made out of ice crystals and forms higher than others, but still in the troposphere.

Above the troposphere is the stratosphere, mesosphere, and then the thermosphere."

Steve and Columbus traveled further into the sky.

"Oh hey, meet my friends Timothy and Fran," said Columbus.

Timothy looked at Steve," I am warm air."

Fran said, giving Steve an evil glare, "I am cold air."

Steve spoke up, "Is this a dream?"

Columbus, still flying through the air, replied, "Maybe, but you will learn."

Timothy and Fran started to circle around each other.

Steve scooted away and said,"What's going on?"

Columbus explained, "Oh they are just making convection currents. This is when warm and cold air naturally cycle around each other since cold air sinks and warm air rises."

"Oh thats cool....."

Columbus swung around violently, almost dropping Steve.

"Sorry man, this jet stream is really strong since we are in the upper troposphere. When we move farther across Earth, we will see the much calmer doldrums near the equator."

"Look at this map." said Columbus, displaying a map of the winds around the Earth. "The horse latitudes are north and south 30 degrees from the equator and they are calm with a few clouds and rainfall.

These winds were used by many explorers and travelers. The prevailing westerlies above and below the horse latitudes have strong winds and affect the U.S. weather and above that, the polar easterlies are cold, weak winds near the poles."

"Wow!" exclaimed Steve. "I'm not sure if I can remember all of that!"

Columbus' map

Steve and his new friends swooped down until they were skimming the ocean waves.

"What are the ocean currents?" asked Steve.

"Well, the surface currents, that go a depth of several hundred meters, are rivers of water moving through the ocean. They are driven by the wind and affect climates on the coast. It acts like an A/C or a heater because during the winter along the coast, the water is warmer and heats up the air.

Likewise, during the summer, the cold water cools the air.

"Are there other currents?" questioned Steve.

"Of course! The Gulf Stream, located in the Atlantic Ocean flows northeastward carrying a warm current since it originates from the equator, where it is warm. Density currents is when denser saltwater sinks beneath the less dense coldwater. This happens deep in the ocean and acts like a conveyer belt."

Fran added, "You forgot about the upwelling current that brings cold water and nutrients to the surface."

"Since we are already here at the ocean, let me teach you about tides," said Columbus. "There are two types of tides- spring and neap tides. Spring tides occur when the moon is full or new and are in line with the Sun and Earth. Neap tides occur when the moon is half and is at right angles with the Sun and Earth. During a spring tides, the waves are really high or really low. During neap tides, the waves are relatively normal and the same."

"Yeah!" said Steve. "I like to go surfing during spring tides!

Timothy said, "Hey! I'll teach you about the different air pressures."

"Ok." said Steve. "What are they?"

"First of all, air pressure is the weight of the air pushing down on an area. Air pressure decreases as altitude increases."

"No wonder I'm feeling a bit light headed."

"High pressure is where the atmosphere pushes down more on an area. Low pressure is the opposite, the atmosphere is less heavy on the area."

"I brought my barometers to help you understand this," said Fran.

"Wow!" said Steve. "What do they do?"

Fran said, "A barometer is a tool that measures air pressure. When the gauge goes high, it means that a storm is coming. When is goes low, it foretells clear and sunny skies."

"Now we are going up to the stratosphere, the next layer in the atmosphere!," said Columbus, as he flew upwards into the sky.

"Hold on!"

Then, everything calmed down and Steve looked on his hand. There were little drops of water.

"Where did this water come from?" asked Steve.

A little voice answered him,"My name is Dewdew, and you have reached the dewpoint, where water vapor condenses into water droplets. Condensation occurs when water vapor cools around tiny pieces of dust.

When the water droplets within a cloud get heavy, they get released down onto the ground as precipitation. Precipitation is when the air becomes dense with water droplets, which makes clouds. Clouds release rain, snow, hail, and sleet."

"Now it's my turn to be the teacher." said Dewdew. "I'll teach you about fronts."

"Cool." said Steve. "What are fronts?"

"There are four types of fronts- cold, warm, stationary, and occluded."

"Tell me about them!"

"Ok, cold fronts are where fast cold air goes under slow warm air and it produces snow or rain and passes by quickly."

"Mmhmm," said Fran. "This is where I become dense and fast and go under Timothy because he is less dense and slow."

"Well." snickered Timothy. "In a warm front, I become fast, collide with cold air, and go over. I bring showers and warm weather."

Columbus spoke up,"Remember when you two have the exact same force? You make a stationary front and bring many days of clouds and rain.

"There is also the occluded front." said Fran.

"This is where warm air is pushed up between two cold air masses and is blocked by the cold air.

"It's like a sandwich!" said Steve.

"Exactly, the temperature is cool and when the warm air cools high up, its water vapor condenses and it turns cloudy and rainy or snowy.

"Ah, here it is!" said Timothy as he pulled out a sheet of paper. "This is a weather map, and it would help you understand this more."

Steve took the paper and saw the different fronts, precipitation, and pressure changes.

"Oh yea, there's more that controls the heating and currents. Global winds are from the unequal heating of the globe. For example, the equator produces hot air which rises to the atmosphere and leaves the area with a low pressure and clouds.

The Coriolis Effect is the fact that air doesn't travel in straight lines from a pole to another. In the Northern Hemisphere, air goes to the right, and left in the Southern."

Fran spoke up,"Here's another map to help you understand isotherms and isobars. Isotherms are the colors. Each color represents a range of a temperature shown on the key. Isobars show areas of the same pressure, shown by the lines and H's and L's.

Fran said,"You are lucky I'm not fighting with Timothy right now. We would form a hurricane since warm and cold air quickly circle around each other."

"Yeah." said Timothy, "Over land, if we fight by circling around each other, we form tornadoes."

"Don't forget about the Sun in all of this!" warned Columbus. "The Sun is the major cause of all of this! The Sun's energy by electromagnetic waves drives the water cycle and causes convection in the atmosphere. The unequal heating of the Earth causes wind and water currents. The Sun is the basis of almost everything!"

"Wow!" exclaimed Steve. "The Sun is pretty awesome!"

"Our time is nearly up." said Dewdew sadly. "Your last teacher will be a human. Her name is Sandy and she is a meteorologist."

"Hi!" said Sandy. "I'll teach you about what I do."

"Cool!" said Steve. "Can you teach me about the tools you use?"

"Of course." replied Sandy. "We use weather satellites to view cloud formations and hurricanes."

"Wow!" said Steve. "That's some really high tech stuff!"

"Yes." laughed Sandy. "Meteorologists use a variety of tools to collect data.We use thermometers to measure the air temperature, anemometers to measure wind direction and speed, and barometers to measure air pressure."

"I already told him about the barometer!" said Fran.

Sandy smiled. "You sure made some great friends, Steve."

"I sure have." said Steve proudly. "But I'll have to go back home soon."

Dewdew said sadly, "We'll miss you!

But we'll keep in touch, okay?"

Columbus carried Steve all the way back where they started.

"Bye Steve!" said Fran and Timothy.

"Remember what we taught you!"

Steve and his friends bid their farewells as they returned to their homes.

"Wow!" said Steve. "I learned a lot and that was a great adventure!"

Ten years later.....Steve became a meteorologist.

T-Chart We mainly helped each other do every slide, but there were a few individual things.

Megan Weather Maps Isotherms/Isobars Weather Patterns

Carrie Meteorologists How scientist get images Drawing of Steve The Sun