Meteorology             Natural Science 1005

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Astronomy
Meteorology
Geology

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Astronomy
Meteorology
Geology

Please note: the questions listed are not the only items that you need to know. The questions point out basic information to help understand some topics, some concepts that may not be obvious to all students, and some of the more difficult concepts.

Definition   

• What  are the two primary precipitation processes? What is the main cloud characteristic that would determine which process would occur in a cloud? Which process mainly occurs in Minnesota?

Precipitation in warm clouds--Collision and coalescence   

• Briefly describe the collision and coalescence process.

• How do different droplets collide? Why do different sizes of drops fall at different speeds?

• What type of collisions have the best chance of resulting in coalescence?
  --coalescence    1:10   

• Describe drop breakup. Why is drop breakup important for producing precipitation in the collision and coalescence process?


--Breakup    4:03    4:36      another     and another

What two main factors affect how much collision and coalescence occurs? Explain why they are important.
--video of drop size distribution--Goddard

• Description from Plymouth State

Precipitation in cold clouds--The Bergeron Process    D2L explanation

• Describe a cold cloud--What type of water is present?

• How do ice crystals form? Why so few ice crystals?  

• Describe the Bergeron process. Explain the extreme importance of the different saturation vapor pressures of liquid water and ice to precipitation. Explain how ice crystals grow.

• How does an ice crystals grow to precipitation size after the Bergeron process has occurred? Describe the processes.

• Why is most of our snow shaped like dendrites?

• Crystal growth video  4 min

• Crystal growth interactive

• Cloud seeding

• Snow melting simulation video  3 min
  

Forms of precipitation   

• Describe the atmospheric profiles for the precipitation types of rain, snow, freezing rain, and sleet

• How rain splashes off drops  video 4 min

• Precip study help

• Precipitation type Interactive

Radar    

• Briefy describe how radar works.

• What does radar indicate? Why do weather forecasters say that radar tells us the intensity of a storm?