5x check teneyck d

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Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University *

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201

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Geography

Date

Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by airmaneyck

1. Suppose you are a flight student at Embry-Riddle in Prescott, Arizona, and you are on the flight line observing a colorful sunset sky. While enjoying the sunset, you look up to observe altocumulus clouds moving across the sky from northwest to southeast, and you quickly determine that, at the level of the clouds, lower pressure is northeast of your location. Synthesize and apply related concepts from Module 5 to explain how you utilized Buys-Ballot’s Law and the observed cloud movement to make this determination. It may help to make a sketch of the scenario. In your explanation, include a discussion of all of the forces acting on air at the mid-levels of the troposphere to justify why the law works correctly. The differential pressure between the high and the low-pressure areas create a pressure gradient force, which drives air from high to low pressure. If I stand with my back to the prevailing wind, the low pressure will be to my left, and if I turn clockwise about 30°, I find the center of lowest pressure. (Ahrens, 2018). Upper-level winds blow parallel to isobars, while surface winds blow across isobars at roughly a 30° angle. (ERAU, 2023). This is Due to the Coriolis effect, causing air to be deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere. Altocumulus clouds indicate their altitude, between 2000-7000 meters, middle clouds. 2. You are a passenger in a window seat of a commercial aircraft currently flying at 39,000 feet. You look out the window and observe a solid layer of altostratus covering the sky about 20,000 feet below you, stretching as far as you can see. A minute later, you see a distinct hole in the cloud layer, with some stray fall streak cirrus clouds directly above the hole. Synthesize and apply related concepts from Module 4 regarding precipitation processes to explain how the visible hole in the cloud layer was produced. Fallstreaks or hole-punch clouds are altostratus clouds, “When ice crystals/snowflakes fall from high cirrus clouds” (Ahrens, 2018). These clouds form in mid-level atmosphere where the temperature is below freezing in a super cooled state. The temperatures are freezing, yet the droplets remain a liquid. Disturbances/turbulence in this thin layer of cloud can initiate a sort of collapse, a chain reaction of freezing droplets, where they begin to descend in the atmosphere, leaving behind a trail of condensation. The result is a hole of various diameters, and a small cloud (Cirrus) above the hole, due to some evaporation of the ice crystals falling into warmer temperatures.

Sources: Ahren C., Henson R. (2018) “ Meteorology Today ”(12 th ed.) Cengage ERAU (2023) “The Forces that Influence the Winds” https://erau.instructure.com/courses/165560/pages/5-dot-1-lesson-wx-basics? module_item_id=10147790 WWLTV (Jan 2022) “Explainer: Fallstreak/Hole punch cloud”[Video].Youtube. https://youtu.be/PFxSH03ukWc?si=E5cEPpG10WrK_FlD

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