Ed
Wehling
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Astronomy
Meteorology
Geology
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Topic
9: Midlatitude cyclones and anticyclones
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.
This chapter contains
material that meteorologists use when analyzing weather systems. We are
covering the material as a bunch of individual topics; however, the
meteorologist considers them all together.
For each of the topics we cover, you want to be able
to:
·
Know the information (recall)
·
Understand the information
·
Apply the information to a weather situation (usually a
weather map)
Cyclone Model
-
What do we mean by a cyclone
model?
-
Describe what is going
on at each stage of the cyclone model.
-
Describe why the cyclone changes
between stages.
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Study help--Midlatitude
cyclones
Formation and
movement of surface high and
low pressure systems
-
Where do
most of
our cyclones form?
-
How can we tell by looking at surface data where
a surface high pressure system will probably move to?
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How can we tell by looking at surface data where
a surface low pressure system will probably move to?
Convergence & Divergence
-
Describe convergence and divergence.
-
What do we mean by the phrase
net convergence and divergence?
-
Draw the general
net
convergence and divergence in the atmosphere
flow near
surface lows and highs.
-
How is the air flow at
a
surface high
related to the upper air flow directly above
it?
-
Describe (in terms of vertical air motions) how a
surface high might get stronger or weaker.
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How is the air flow at
a
surface low related to the upper air flow directly above
it?
-
Describe (in terms of vertical air motions) how a
surface low might get stronger or weaker.
-
Description
of strengthening and weaking low pressure system (toward bottom of
page)
Factors that affect
development of cyclones
-
Describe flow divergence. Can
you identify flow divergence and flow convergence on an upper air
map?
-
Describe a jet streak.
What areas of a jet
streak are areas of upper level divergence?
Can you identify these areas on an upper air map? (p.
239-240)
--Jet
streak description
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Describe vorticity.
D2L explanation
-
What parts of a long wave have
more or less vorticity?
-
How are vorticity and upper level divergence
linked?
-
How are areas of maximum vorticity and upper
level divergence linked on a map?
-
Can you identify areas of
maximum and minimum vorticity on an upper air map? Can you identify
related areas upper level divergence on an upper air map?
-
How are surface high and low
pressure systems linked with areas of maximum and minimum vorticity?
-
How are surface high and low
pressure systems linked with areas of upper level divergence and
convergence?
-
Can you identify likely areas
of surface high and low pressure systems on an upper air map?
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Describe a vortmax.
-
Describe how a vortmax is
associated with upper level divergence. Can you identify areas of
upper level divergence that are related to a vortmax on an upper air
map?
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Describe long waves.
-
Describe short waves.
How do
short waves affect the development and strength of a cyclone?
-
How does the shape of a trough affect the
development of a system?
-
Describe how tilting of pressure systems affect
the development of cyclones. Why do tilted systems sustain
themselves? Why do stacked systems weaken?
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