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Lab Report Weather Patterns

This lab report investigates weather patterns, focusing on factors like air pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind, and their effects on different weather types using an online simulation. Observations reveal how changes in these variables influence weather conditions, with conclusions drawn about the complexity of local weather resulting from global atmospheric interactions. The report also discusses the implications of climate change on weather events and suggests improvements for further investigation.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
113 views7 pages

Lab Report Weather Patterns

This lab report investigates weather patterns, focusing on factors like air pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind, and their effects on different weather types using an online simulation. Observations reveal how changes in these variables influence weather conditions, with conclusions drawn about the complexity of local weather resulting from global atmospheric interactions. The report also discusses the implications of climate change on weather events and suggests improvements for further investigation.
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lab Report: Weather Patterns

Section I: Overview of Investigation


• Introduction:
o Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a particular time and place.
Understanding weather patterns is crucial for predicting future
conditions, making informed decisions about agriculture, and
preparing for severe weather events.
o The purpose of this lab was to investigate how different types of
weather form and to explore the causes of specific weather patterns
using an online simulation.
• Background Information:
o Several key factors influence weather:
▪ Air Pressure: Areas of high pressure tend to have clear skies,
while low pressure often brings storms.
▪ Temperature: Differences in temperature drive air movement
and influence the type of precipitation (rain, snow, etc.).
▪ Humidity: High humidity means the air is holding a lot of
moisture, making precipitation more likely.
▪ Wind: Wind distributes heat and moisture, influencing weather
patterns across regions.
▪ The Water Cycle: The continuous cycle of evaporation,
condensation, and precipitation is essential for cloud formation
and all types of precipitation.
o The specific weather types we explored in this lab include:
▪ Sunny Weather: Sunny weather occurs when there is high
pressure, low humidity, and clear skies.
▪ Rainy Weather: Rain forms when warm, moist air rises, cools,
and condenses into clouds. Precipitation occurs when the water
droplets in clouds become too heavy.
▪ Thunderstorms: Thunderstorms develop when warm, humid air
rises rapidly, creating towering cumulonimbus clouds. These
storms are characterized by lightning and thunder.
▪ Snow: Snow forms when temperatures are below freezing and
water vapor in the air crystallizes directly into ice crystals.
▪ Fog: Fog forms when water vapor condenses near the ground,
creating a cloud at ground level. This often happens when warm,
moist air moves over a cooler surface.
▪ Mist: Mist is similar to fog but less dense. It occurs when there
are tiny water droplets suspended in the air, reducing visibility
slightly.
• Procedure:
o We used an online weather simulation that allowed us to manipulate
humidity, air pressure, and temperature.
o We systematically changed each variable while observing its effect on
the simulated weather conditions.
o Observations were recorded for each combination of variables.
Section II: Observations and Conclusions
• Observations and Data:
o Humidity: [Describe what you observed when you changed the
humidity in the simulation. For example, did increasing the humidity
make it rain more often? Did it affect the type of precipitation?]
o Air Pressure: Air pressure depends on temperature and density.
o When you inflate a balloon, the air molecules inside the balloon get packed
more closely together than air molecules outside the balloon. This means
the density of air is high inside the balloon. When the density of air is high,
the air pressure is high. The pressure of the air pushes on the balloon from
the inside, causing it to inflate. If you heat the balloon, the air pressure gets
even higher.
o Air pressure depends on the temperature of the air and the density
(calculated as mass divided by volume) of the air molecules.
o Atmospheric scientists use math equations to describe how pressure,
temperature, density, and volume are related to each other. They call these
equations the Ideal Gas Law. In these equations, temperature is measured in
Kelvin. The constant in the equations refers to the Universal Gas Constant
and the amount, or number of molecules, of a gas.
o Temperature: A warmer atmosphere has knock-on effects for many
different types of weather, not only warm weather, and will affect
different parts of the world differently.
o Climate change is making droughts last longer, and heat waves
are becoming more frequent. Heavy rainfall and snowfall will
become more intense in some places as a warmer atmosphere is
able to hold more moisture in the sky. And, high-impact events like
storms will become more frequent
• Conclusions: Imagine our weather if Earth were completely motionless, had a
flat dry landscape and an untilted axis. This of course is not the case; if it were,
the weather would be very different. The local weather that impacts our daily
lives results from large global patterns in the atmosphere caused by the
interactions of solar radiation, Earth's large ocean, diverse landscapes, and
motion in space.


• A storm darkens the sky at the mouth of the Russian River, north of
Bodega Bay, Calif. The storm was driven largely by an "atmospheric
river" over California. (Image credit: NOAA)
• Download Image

• Global winds

• Earth’s orbit around the sun and its rotation on a tilted axis causes
some parts of Earth to receive more solar radiation than others. This
uneven heating produces global circulation patterns.offsite link For
example, the abundance of energy reaching the equator produces hot
humid air that rises high into the atmosphere. A low pressure area
forms at the surface and a region of clouds forms at altitude. The air
eventually stops rising and spreads north and south towards the
Earth's poles. About 2000 miles from the equator, the air falls back to
Earth's surface blowing towards the pole and back to the equator. Six
of these large convection currents cover the Earth from pole to pole.


• Reducing human-caused air pollution in North America & Europe
brings surprise result: more hurricanes
• NOAA studied about four decades of tropical cyclones revealing the
surprising result that reducing particulate air pollution in Europe and
North America has contributed to an increase in the number of tropical
cyclones in the North Atlantic basin and a decrease in the number of
these storms in the Southern Hemisphere. The study also found that
the growth of particulate pollution in Asia has contributed to fewer
tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific basin.

• Air masses

• These global wind patterns drive large bodies of air called air masses.
Air masses are thousands of feet thick and extend across large areas of
the Earth. The location over which an air mass forms will determine its
characteristics. For example, air over the tropical ocean becomes
exceptionally hot and humid. Air over a high latitude continent may
become cold and dry. You have probably noticed the temperature
rapidly dropping on a nice warm day as a cold air mass pushed a warm
one out the way.

• Fronts

• The location where two air masses meet is called a front. They can be
indirectly observed using current weather maps, which can be used to
track them as the move across the Earth. Cold fronts, generally shown
in blue, occur where a cold air mass is replacing a warm air mass.
Warm fronts, shown in red, occur where warm air replaces cold air.


• What is the jet stream?
• The term jet stream is used increasingly in both weather forecasts and
news reports of extreme events, from cold spells and flooding to
heatwaves and droughts. But what is the jet stream, and why do we
care about it so much?

• Jet streams

• The local weather conditions that we experience at the Earth's surface


are related to these air masses and fronts. However the environment
far above us impacts their movement. High in the atmosphere, narrow
bands of strong wind, such as the jet streams, steer weather systems
and transfer heat and moisture around the globe.

• Coriolis effect

• As they travel across the Earth, air masses and global winds do not
move in straight lines. Similar to a person trying to walk straight across
a spinning Merry-Go-Round, winds get deflected from a straight-line
path as they blow across the rotating Earth. In the Northern
Hemisphere air veers to the right and in the Southern Hemisphere to
the left. This motion can result in large circulating weather systems, as
air blows away from or into a high or low pressureoffsite link area.
Hurricanes and nor'easters are examples of these cyclonic systems.


• When to expect the warmest day of the year
• During the summer months, most areas in the United States approach
their highest temperatures for the year. To give you a better idea of the
warmest time of year for your area, NOAA has created “Warmest Day
of the Year” maps.

• Improvements and Further Investigation:
controlling more variables, improving measurement technique, increasing
randomization to reduce sample bias, blinding the experiment, and adding
control or placebo groups

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