GPHY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Lapse Rate, Humidity, Water Cycle

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Geography
• Course: GPHY 102
• Professor: Ryan K Danby

Document Summary

Objectives: examine the hydrologic cycle, evaluate the measurement of humidity, understand the nature and role of adiabatic processes, describe cloud types and the development of precipitation. Water: key roles of water on earth. Oceans act as a reservoir for heat redistribution and storage reservoir for dissolved compounds. Fresh water failing on earth causes weathering an erosion, moving soils and rock debris form on location to another. Water in air moves large quantities of heat from one place to another. The hydrosphere: components of the hydrosphere include water in all of its forms. Specific humidity: actual quantity of water vapour in the air (grams of water vapour per kilogram of air, determines water available for precipitation, warm air can hold much more water than cold. Specific humidity and global temperature: mean air temperature increases towards equator, thus, specific humidity increases towards equator. Dew point: temperature at which water vapour condenses to liquid.