Stability and Cloud Development

Focus topics

 
• Atmospheric Stability
• Determining Stability
• Cloud Development

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Key Terms

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Check for Comprehension
 

1.  Do you understand the concept of atmospheric stability and its importance in cloud formation?

2.  Do you understand the various lifting mechanisms associated with cloud formation?
 

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Questions for Review

1. Why are the moist and dry adiabatic rates of cooling different?

2.  Describe the general characteristics of clouds associated with stable and unstable air.

3.  Explain why an inversion represents an absolutely stable atmosphere.

4.  Why do cumulonimbus clouds all have flat tops?

5.  List four primary ways clouds form and describe the formation of one cloud type by each method.

6.  Explain why rain shadows form on the leeward side of mountains.

7.  Why, in summertime, are cumulus humilis more likely to form than cumulus congestus in the center of a large high-pressure area?

8.  How can a layer of altostratus change into one of altocumulus?
 

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Quiz

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