The document discusses various atmospheric and weather phenomena including: 1) How air pressure decreases with increasing altitude due to fewer gas molecules, resulting in adiabatic cooling. 2) Orographic lifting occurs when air rises up mountain slopes, cooling adiabatically and forming clouds and precipitation. 3) Frontal wedging results from warm air rising over a wall of cooler air at a front, forming clouds through condensation. 4) Convergence causes horizontal air inflow into an area, with converging winds rising to form clouds.

2.  If you go further into the
Earth’s surface and through
the atmosphere, the pressure
decreases.
 There are fewer gas
molecules as you go up.
That’s why the pressure
decreases.
 The result is that the
ascending air is expanded,
and then cooled. Creating
the process of Adiabatic
Temperature changes.

3.  Orographic lifting is when
elevations, like mountains
shield air flow.
 This can happen because air
goes up a mountain slope,
then adiabatic cooling plays
it’s part in making clouds and
precipitation.
 When the air gets to the
leeward side of the
mountain, a great amount of
the air’s moisture is lost,
because it was already used
up on the other side of the
mountain.

4.  When masses of warm air
and cold air combine, they
create a front. The colder air
acts like a wall that the
warmer air can’t get pass, so
it rises upward and over the
wall of cool air.
 When this happens, clouds
form and condense,
creating the process, frontal
wedging.

5.  Convergence is when the wind
moves and ends up in a
horizontal inflow of air into an
area.
 Then, convergent winds that are
at a lower level meet with the
motion. Air rises and clouds form.
 An example of convergence is
when a cloud hovers over a
certain area and makes the
converging winds collide, then
they rise upward, toward the
cloud; creating the process of
convergence.

6.  Localized convective lifting is
when unequal heating of the
earth’s surface causes sections
of air to be warmed.
 This happens when the air is filled
with water vapor and it rises to
the location where cooler
temperatures are and that forms
condensation.
 It almost repeats in a cycle, as
you can see in the picture to the
right.

7.  An example of Stability is when
cool air moves over a warmer
area, then the warm surface heats
up from the air that is below it. As a
result, it will create an air mass that
is actually less stable as the
temperature changes.
 Density differences are when there
is a change between the density
and the water vapor is in the air.

8.  Condensation is the part of
the weather cycle that rain
drops evaporate from a
body of water upward into
the air and form clouds.
 Condensation is the second
stage in the water cycle.
 Condensation takes place
after water evaporates into
the air.

9.  Cumulonimbus: Thunder clouds
 Cirrostratus: Thin and wispy
 Cirrus: Very thin, could look curly
 Cirrocumulus: Fluffy and small
 Altostratus: Very wavy looking
 Altocumulus: Fluffy and are
medium sized
 Stratocumulus: Flat and wide on
the bottom and fluffy on the top.
 Cumulus: Your regular fluffy cloud
 Stratus: Layered from thick to thin.

10.  They could reach heights from
16,500 ft, to 45,000 feet into
the air at mid latitude.
 When they reach this level,
they are made out of ice
crystals
 The clouds that could very
well be in this level are cirrus,
cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus

11.  These clouds could reach heights
from 6,500 ft, to 23,000 ft in the
air.
 In the level below high clouds,
these clouds could possibly be
made of ice crystals, but are
mostly made up of water
droplets.
 Some of the clouds that form at
this level could be altocumulus,
altostratus, and nimbostratus.

12.  Low clouds can reach heights
from 2,500 ft to 8,000 ft into the
air
 In the lowest level, they form
from humidity that is held in the
air and by water droplets that
condense into these clouds.
 The clouds that are in this level
are the common cumulus and
stratus clouds.

13.  They are clouds that are
vertically formed and they
are usually dark looking or
stormy looking clouds.
 They actually look very
unusual compared to other
clouds

14.  Fog is basically water
droplets that form and
condense, creating a mist
in the Earth’s surface.
 It disappears when it
reaches a certain cool,
saturation point.

15.  Cold cloud precipitation is
when precipitation
happens and water
descends down from the
clouds, but it’s really cold.
 This is because the
temperature has
changed within the cloud
to a lower temperature.

16.  Warm air precipitation is
when precipitation
happens and water
descends down from the
clouds, but it’s really warm
 This happens because the
humidity that is trapped
inside the clouds is really
warm, so when it rains, you
get warm cloud
precipitation.

17.  Rain, snow and sleet are
various types of precipitation
that can happen within a
cloud. If the temperature is
warm, the cloud precipitates
rain, and if the temperature
is cold, the cloud
precipitates snow.

18.  Sleet, glaze, and hail are also
different forms of
precipitation. Sleet and hail
are similar, but hail usually
comes in thunder storms.
Sleet can sometimes comes
when it’s raining.