Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 44 views

    Formation of Precipitation

    Uploaded by

    Engr. JD
    This document discusses the formation of precipitation through three key processes: 1) Air becomes saturated (RH = 100%) through lifting and cooling, reaching the lifting condensation level. 2) Condensation nuclei provide sites for water vapor to condense into droplets. 3) Droplets grow in size through condensation until they become heavy enough to fall as precipitation.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Formation of Precipitation

    Uploaded by

    Engr. JD
    44 views3 pages
    This document discusses the formation of precipitation through three key processes: 1) Air becomes saturated (RH = 100%) through lifting and cooling, reaching the lifting condensation level. 2) Condensation nuclei provide sites for water vapor to condense into droplets. 3) Droplets grow in size through condensation until they become heavy enough to fall as precipitation.

    Original Description:

    test

    Copyright

    © Public Domain

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document discusses the formation of precipitation through three key processes: 1) Air becomes saturated (RH = 100%) through lifting and cooling, reaching the lifting condensation level. 2) Condensation nuclei provide sites for water vapor to condense into droplets. 3) Droplets grow in size through condensation until they become heavy enough to fall as precipitation.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    44 views3 pages

    Formation of Precipitation

    Uploaded by

    Engr. JD
    This document discusses the formation of precipitation through three key processes: 1) Air becomes saturated (RH = 100%) through lifting and cooling, reaching the lifting condensation level. 2) Condensation nuclei provide sites for water vapor to condense into droplets. 3) Droplets grow in size through condensation until they become heavy enough to fall as precipitation.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    Lecture – 2: Formation of Precipitation

    1. Introduction: Thermodynamic Considerations

    A necessary condition to the formation of precipitation is that the air becomes saturated with
    water vapor. Saturation is the first step in the formation of precipitation (i.e. it is necessary but not
    sufficient).

    Saturation is typically quantified by relative humidity. The relative humidity (RH) is defined as:

    ea
    RH = ,
    es
    where ea is the actual water vapor pressure (say in kPa or mbars) and es is the saturation vapor
    pressure. Air becomes saturated if RH is 100%.

    The actual vapor pressure is dependent on the water vapor concentration (or density ρ v ) of the
    parcel of air. These variables are related through the ideal gas law, given by

    0.622 ea
    ρv =
    Rd T

    where:

    ρv is the water vapor density


    Rd is the gas constant of dry air (=287.04 Joules kg-1 K-1)
    T is the absolute temperature (K)

    NOTE: the 0.622 = 18/29 which is the ratio of the molecular weights of water and air.

    The saturation vapor pressure is defined as the pressure at which the parcel of air is saturated with
    water vapor. That is - you cannot add more water vapor to this parcel of air without changing its
    temperature.

    The saturation vapor pressure varies only with temperature. The relationship is known as the
    Claussius-Clapeyron equation. It can be approximated by

     17.502 Tc 
    es (kPa) = 0.611 Exp  
     Tc + 240.91

    where Tc is the air temperature (degrees C). The relationship between es and Tc is shown in
    Figure 1. Hence, RH → 100% if
    1) ρ v increases (for a fixed temperature) or
    2) 2) if temperature decreases.
    Figure 1: Exponential variation of saturation vapor pressure with air temperature.

    Decreasing temperature decreases exponentially es (see Figure 1) thereby forcing es = ea .

    One key mechanism for decreasing temperature is LIFTING the parcel of air to higher elevation.
    As a parcel of air is lifted to higher elevations – it becomes cooler, and its es drops. The height or
    elevation at which es = ea , clouds will form. The term LIFTING CONDENSATION LEVEL
    (LCL) is often used to describe this elevation or state.

    Roughly speaking, the air cools by about 10K per 1000 m (or 1 Km). This quantity is known is
    g
    the DRY ADIABATIC LAPSE RATE ( Γd ). By definition, Γd = , where g is the
    Cp
    gravitational acceleration (=9.8 m s-2) and C p is the specific heat capacity of dry air at constant
    pressure (=1005 Joules Kg-1 K-1).

    2. Classification of Precipitation Events:

    Hence, the “mechanism” by which air is lifted is nominally used to classify the type of
    precipitation.

    Broadly speaking, there are 3 types of lifting mechanisms:


    • Orographic lifting: In which air is forced to go over mountains (and it’s the reason why
    windward slopes receive more precipitation).

    • Frontal surface lifting: In which warmer air is forced to go above cooler air in equilibrium
    with a cooler surface.

    • Convective Lifting: Warm air rises from a warm surface and progressively cools down.

    All three mechanisms can lift air and hence result in the cooling process necessary to reduce
    es and attain RH=100%.

    3. Formation of Precipitation

    As earlier stated, condensation is a NECESSARY but NOT SUFFICIENT condition to the


    formation of precipitation. Next, we briefly describe the remaining conditions necessary to the
    formation of precipitation.

    3.1 Condensation Nuclei: These are particles in the atmosphere of the order of 0.1 to 10 µ m.
    These particles originate from products of combustion, oxides of nitrogen, aerosols, salt
    particles, etc…

    3.2 Growth of the water droplet: The saturated air tends to condense on these particles – and then
    water droplet grow in size, become heavier, and fall to the ground as precipitation.

    Condensation Nuclei

    ea = es LCL

    Lifting: (Orographic, Frontal,


    or Convective)
    Cooling ~ 0.1 C per 100 m

    ea < es Precipitation

    Surface
    Figure 2: Summary of the key (idealized) processes leading to precipitation.

    You might also like