Chapter 17 Moisture, Clouds, and Precipitation
Review Question Answers
1. a) water is most dense in the liquid form.
b) gaseous phase
c) gaseous phase
2. gas and liquid. The small droplets in the "steam" are what
making the flow visible. You cannot see the gas.
3. a) evaporation of moisture through the pores of the skin.
b) Phoenix
4. The Koozies decrease the convection of the air surrounding
the can and the Koozies decrease the radiation from the warmer
air to the can.
5.
23.5 times
6.
b)
c)
d)
a) Bismark ND
Phoenix AZ
Bismark ND
Phoenix AZ
7. 6 am
8. a)
location
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
Temperature
27
17
12
7
17
27
37
Dewpoint
17
17
12
7
7
7
7
b) 1 km
c) Much warmer at location G and much drier at G because the
moisture has been removed by precipitation.
d) the water content decreased
e) lush vegetation on the windward size and desert conditions on
the leeward side.
9. One cubic km = 10**9 cubic meters = 1,000,000,000 cubic
meters
So the number of gallons = 12*8*8*1,000,000,000*05/3785
10. Small droplets in a cloud at about 005 mm in size coalesce
(bump into each other) into larger droplets.
11. Because the ground can radiate to space efficiently if
there are no clouds in the way to stop the radition. The cloud
acts like a blanket.
12.
North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
13.
1.3 inches per hour times 2.5 hours = 3.25 inches
14. Rain gauges have to be read and emptied. Wind can also
cause the rain gauge to not accurately pickup rain which is
falling at an angle. If the rain gauges are tipping bucket rain
gauges, they do not measure high rainfall rates accurately
because they are loosing water during the tipping process.
Radar will underestimate the rainfall rate often because you
must assume certain climatic conditions because certain climates
will produce rain droplets of different sizes. This affects the
relationship between the radar reflectivity and the number of
droplets predicted. This relationship is knows as the Z-R
relationship (radar reflectivity versus rainfall rate).
Differeent climates have different Z-R relationships. Radar
beams are not horizontal but are include slightly upward.
Therefore at considerable distance the radar beam does not
encounter rain drops at low altitudes, thus underestimating the
rainfall rate.
The bottom line is that most methods of measuring rainfall
underestimate the true rainfall.