ATOC 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Advection, Kilogram, Supersaturation
10 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
- topics: 1) the role of water in the atmosphere: phases and phase transitions of water, terms and definitions for atmospheric moisture and humidity, impact of moisture on human comfort. - humidity = the amount of water vapor in the air; An invisible gas effectively absorbs longwave radiation and changes phase to become visible water/ice when millions of molecules join together to form tiny cloud droplets or ice crystals; ii. Adding several degrees of warming to earth"s average surface temperature; iii. Transporting heat as it changes phase between solid, liquid and gas states; iv. Affecting weather: a) when it transforms into the liquid water droplets or ice crystals that form clouds; b) these particles can grow larger as precipitation; v. most of the water in the atmosphere is composed of water vapor. Water = the glue that binds the atmosphere to all the other earth"s systems.
