GEOG 1350 Lecture 7: Severe Weather
2 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
There is an equilibrium between incoming radiation and outgoing radiation. Earth intercepts only a small portion of the suns radiation. The sun"s energy drives the hydrologic cycle and all weather phenomena on earth. Nearly all of the energy available at the suns surface comes from the sun. The remaining 1% consists of water vapour, carbon dioxide and other trace gases (methane ect. ) Water vapour in the atmosphere can result in cloud development and the formation of precipitation. Water vapour comes from evaporation from the oceans. All weather (clouds and precipitation) is confined to the troposphere. The ozone layer (25 km above the surface) protects us from the suns harmful uv rays; it is found in the stratosphere. Cloud names generally contain a prefix and a suffix. Prefixes (height: high: cirro, mid-level: alto, low: strato- Suffixes (appearance: puffy: cumulus, flat: stratus ex. high and puffy cloud is a cirrocumulus cloud. Clouds that do produce precipitation contain nimb in their name.
