SCI 100 – Meteorology: Chapter 5 Focus
Questions and Topics to Study
Comprehensively describe the “adiabatic process”? (Hint: see Fig. 5.2 on page 119)
Explain why the moist adiabatic rate and dry adiabatic rate are different.
List and describe the ways, both at the surface and aloft, the atmosphere be made more stable.
List and describe the ways, both at the surface and aloft, the atmosphere be made more unstable.
Ch 5 Focus, page 1 of 5
Chapter 5 Questions and Topics to Study (cont’d)
There are three main classifications of atmospheric stability. Describe the one known as
“conditionally unstable” and relate it to cloud growth.
Explain why an inversion represents a very stable atmosphere.
What (general) type of clouds would you expect to see...
...in a stable atmosphere?
...in an unstable atmosphere?
List the four primary ways clouds form, hence the four lifting mechanisms, as seen on Fig 5.10.
Ch 5 Focus, page 2 of 5
Chapter 5 Questions and Topics to Study (cont’d)
Describe the process of convectional lifting.
Describe the process of orographic lifting using the classic “wind over the mountain” example. Be
sure to understand why it is warmer and drier on the leeward side of some mountain ranges.
Know the main aspect of the collision & coalescence precipitation process.
Know the main premise of the ice-crystal (Bergeron) precipitation process.
Ch 5 Focus, page 3 of 5
Chapter 5 Questions and Topics to Study (cont’d)
Know the difference between freezing rain and sleet, including the type of lower atmosphere that
can produce each of these types of winter precipitation. (Hint: See Active Figure 5.32 on page 139)
How does Doppler RADAR measure the intensity of precipitation?
Chapter 5 Additional Key Terms and Concepts
Accretion (riming)
Aggregation (snowflake)
Cloud Seeding (main premise)
Ch 5 Focus, page 4 of 5
Chapter 5 Additional Key Terms and Concepts (cont’d)
Condensation Level (Lifting Condensation Level or LCL)
Environmental Lapse Rate
Graupel (Snow Pellets)
Subsidence Inversion
Supercooled (water droplet)
Virga
Ch 5 Focus, page 5 of 5