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Meteorology Science olympiad

Terms in this set (47)

Air mass
A huge body of air that has similar temperature, humidity, and air pressure at any given height and source reigon
Fronts
Fronts are when any two air masses meet. The four major types of fronts are cold fronts, warm fronts, stationary fronts, and occluded fronts. They do not mix
Cyclones
Areas in the atomosphere that have lower pressure than the surrounding areas and has winds that spiral towards the center. (LOW) As the air in the center of a cyclone rises it cools and forms clouds and rain.
Anticylones
High pressure centers of dry air.
Weather maps
maps providing overall picture of weather activity across Earth collected from weather stations
Weather stations
instruments such as wind vanes, barometers, rain gauges to gather information for local weather conditions. These are observed and recorded.
Global circulation patterns
caused by uneven heating of Earth's surface and Earth's rotation
simi-permanent highs and lows
Regions where high and low pressure areas persist throughout the year
scales of atmospheric motion
1) microscale: very small scale (Ex: nature of wind around tower up to small town/UT campus), 2) mesoscale: moderate scale, most improvements in weather forecasting done here (Ex: small town up to size of several states combined), 3) macroscale: 1) synoptic (weather map) scale: national scale up to N. America (Ex: large hurricane), 2) global scale: broadest, generalized wind patterns
Thunderstorms
a storm that produces lightening and thunder and often heavy rains and strong winds
Supercell thunderstorms
large, rotating single-cell thunderstorm, can cause tornadoes, large hail, frequent lightning, heavy rain, strong winds
life cycles
When a thunderstorm goes through the cumulus stage, the mature stage, and the decaying stage.
Squall lines
Relatively narrow, elongated bands of thunderstorms that develop in the warm sector of a middle-latitude cyclone, usually in advance of a cold front. High winds
Mesoscale convective complexes
MCC. Comonly contain heavy rain-fall, hail, Lightning, and possbly torndoes
Dry line Thunderstorms
a thunderstorm with no rain they are on dry lines, a dry line is an area of dry air that charges out of the mountains during the day and it pushes up the humid air
Microbursts
A column of sinking air producing damaging divergent and straight line winds
Downburst
A sudden rush of cool air toward ground that can impact with speeds over 70 mph and produce damage similar to that of a tornado. It usually occurs near the leading edge of the storm or may occur in heavy rain.
Gust fronts
the boundary between cold and warm air at the surface during a thunderstorm which forces warm air up into the storm cell
Down drafts
The vertical movement of air as a weather related phenomenon
Derechos
Widespread, long-lived straight-line wind storm that is associated with a land-based, fast band of severe thunderstorms
dust storms
occur when winds blow dry topsoil from open fields, overgrazed areas, or places with little or no vegetation
Electrification of clouds
Electrical state of cloud of thickness, greater cloud height results in exposure to higher conductivities.
Lightning strokes
A discharge of lightning between a cloud and the earth, one that causes damage.
Sprites and jets
They appear as cones, glows and discharges. They were only discovered last century, because of their placement and their very brief life-span (they last less than a second)
Lightning direction finders
can discriminate cloud-to-ground flash from other forms of lightning or noise by the electromagnetic signature
Tornado Life cycle
dust whirl stage, organizing stage, mature stage, shrinkage stage, decaying stage
Tornado Characteristics
diameters in the hundreds of meters, produced from a single convective storm, require substantial vertical shear of horizontal winds (i.e., change of wind speed and/or direction with height), produced in regions of large temperature gradient, and last usually less than an hour.
Tornado Hazards
extremely strong winds, impact pressure, flying objects, suction effects, Hail, Lightning.
Fujita Scale
A scale that tells how severe a tornado is based on wind speed and the damage being caused.
Observation Technologies
Used to dcect or make measurements of local weather conditions. This includes Radar Stations, Airplanes, ships, Satellites, weather balloons, weather buoys, and ground stations.
Radar Stations
Used to locate clouds and measure heights. A Dopler Radar (a special type of equipment, can detect air motion and precipitation.
Airplanes and Ships
Can carry instrument packages that make measurements wherever they go
Satellites
These orbit the earth above the atmosphere. Images can show cloud cover, warm and cool reigons, and invisible water vapor
Weather Ballons
These make important measurements of the air at different altitudes as they carry insruments high into the stratosphere.
Ground Stations
Hold instruments that measure air pressure, temperature, dew point, precipitation, wind speed, wind direction, and cloud cover.
Weather buoys
Record the weather far from cities. They also measure conditions in the ocean that affect the atmosphere.
Cirrus
a wispy white cloud (usually of fine ice crystals) at a high altitude (4 to 8 miles)
Cirrocumulus
a cloud at a high altitude consisting of a series of regularly arranged small clouds resembling ripples
Cumulonimbus
A type of cumulus cloud that is tall and gray, and associated with thunderstorms.
Cirrostratus
Thin layers of ice which usually cover the sky and form halos around the sun and moon. They usually indicate increasing cloudiness.
Altostratus
Greyish/bluish cloud sheet or layer of striated. Parts cover the sky and sun (overcast), can see the sun vaguely like translucent and makes it dim; has holes in the clouds; does not indicate bad weather
Nimbostratus
Clouds that are low-level, uniform layer, usually very dark, that bring strong precipitation
Stratus
Clouds that form in low, horizontal layers, cover all or most of sky. Can cause pricipitation.
Cumulus
Thick, fluffy clouds with flat bases, formed by vertically rising air currents. Can cause precipitation.
Fog
A stratus cloud located on the ground
Smog
A combination of smoke and fog.1
Rain
Forms from water droplets or ice crystals melting as they fall
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