http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/overview.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Atmosphere.shtml
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/warnings_e.html
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/severeweather/index.shtml
en.wikipedia.org
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
Weather Related Events
There are many types of dangerous weather, and in order to protect us, the Government of Canada issues warning about such weather so that we can be prepared. Environment Canada issues warning about ten different kinds of severe weather, wind, rain, snow, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, winter storms, thunderclouds, temperature (perceived and real), and air quality. There are three levels of alerts that they use, advisory, or special weather statement, watch, and warning. An advisory is a statement about a strange occurrence, or something that cannot be explained in a normal forecast. A watch is a warning that the dangerous weather in question is likely to occur due to favorable conditions for its formation. A warning is saying that the weather in question is going to happen, or is happening and to take precations accordingly.
Heavy wind, rain, and snow are fairly simple, such conditions can cause flooding, the uprooting of trees or the breaking of limbs, and a variety of other damages, there is a large variety in this category, things such as freezing rain, heavy snowfall, or high winds. These are reported differently across the country, on the coast, there are many more gradients of wind that are reported than inland, and some of these events are very specific, such as the arctic outflow.
Temperature encompasses quick changes in temperature such as cold snaps and heat waves, as well as the indexes of percieved temerature like the humidex and wind chill, and dangerous extremes of temerature such as the statements we get every morning durring the winter about how long it will take for exposed skin to freeze.
Air quality is all about non water weather, things like dust storms, and haze or smoke allerts, and in some places smog allerts.
Tornadoes are small, fast moving vortexes that usually extend from sever thunderstorms, especially the classic anvil shaped ones and large circular super cells.
Hurricanes are huge rotating storms that produce high wind, extremely heavy rainfall, and storm surges, they form over warm equatorial waters and rarely reach Canada, but some do occasionally make it to the east coast.
Blizzards are very bad snowstorms that are characterized by high winds and blowing snow that obstructs sight. To be a blizzard a storm must have winds of at least 35 mile per hour (56km/h) and blowing snow that reduces visibility to 400m or less.
Winter Storms are other sever winter weather events that do not meet the requirements for being a blizzard, but are still dangerous or potentially damaging.
Thunder Storms are in most ways like heavy rain, but with the potential of dangerous lightning strikes that can light fires and even hit people directly, they are often accompanied by high winds and occasionally cause tornadoes.
Heavy wind, rain, and snow are fairly simple, such conditions can cause flooding, the uprooting of trees or the breaking of limbs, and a variety of other damages, there is a large variety in this category, things such as freezing rain, heavy snowfall, or high winds. These are reported differently across the country, on the coast, there are many more gradients of wind that are reported than inland, and some of these events are very specific, such as the arctic outflow.
Temperature encompasses quick changes in temperature such as cold snaps and heat waves, as well as the indexes of percieved temerature like the humidex and wind chill, and dangerous extremes of temerature such as the statements we get every morning durring the winter about how long it will take for exposed skin to freeze.
Air quality is all about non water weather, things like dust storms, and haze or smoke allerts, and in some places smog allerts.
Tornadoes are small, fast moving vortexes that usually extend from sever thunderstorms, especially the classic anvil shaped ones and large circular super cells.
Hurricanes are huge rotating storms that produce high wind, extremely heavy rainfall, and storm surges, they form over warm equatorial waters and rarely reach Canada, but some do occasionally make it to the east coast.
Blizzards are very bad snowstorms that are characterized by high winds and blowing snow that obstructs sight. To be a blizzard a storm must have winds of at least 35 mile per hour (56km/h) and blowing snow that reduces visibility to 400m or less.
Winter Storms are other sever winter weather events that do not meet the requirements for being a blizzard, but are still dangerous or potentially damaging.
Thunder Storms are in most ways like heavy rain, but with the potential of dangerous lightning strikes that can light fires and even hit people directly, they are often accompanied by high winds and occasionally cause tornadoes.
The Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Earth is immensely complicated, it has many layers that are separated by a variety of criteria, and often overlap. The atmosphere is separated into five layers, determined by "temperature" I use quotes because at the higher altitudes, the meaning of the word is a little fuzzy, so in this case I mean the kinetic energy carried by individual particles such as atoms and molecules. The lowest layer is the Troposphere, it is usually between nine and twenty kilometers high, taller at the equator, and shorter at the poles. This layer is heated mostly by heat radiating off the surface of the earth, and as such is warmer at the bottom and cooler at the top. This causes turbulence, and constant vertical mixing. This layer contains eighty percent of the atmosphere by mass, and ends at the Tropopause.Just on the other side of the Tropopause is the stratosphere, beginning from the top of the troposphere to a height of about 51 kilometers above sea level, and warmer at the top than at the bottom because of the large amounts of energy absorbed by the ozone layer in the upper stratosphere. because of this temperature gradient, there is little air movement vertically, the Stratosphere ends at the Stratopause.
Above the Stratopause is the Mesosphere. Here the temperature begins to decrease as you go up again. This layer usually has an upper height of 85 kilometers at the Mesopause.
Above the Mesosphere is the Thermosphere, here things begin to warm up as you move upwards, features include the "warmest" place near earth, and outer space. In Mesosphere the gasses are so diffuse that they begin to stratify by mass, this begins above the Turbopause which is at about the same height as the Karman Line, the internationally recognized beginning of space, a height of about one hundred kilometers. The International Space Station and many satellites orbit the Earth at this level, even though it is incredibly hot, these structures do not gain much heat because the space between each particle is very great, but they do need to have their orbits boosted as they decay because of atmospheric drag.
Finally, at the very top of the atmosphere is the Exosphere, here the temperature is constant with altitude. This is just the tiny layer of hydrogen that is barely differentiated from the rest of actual space.
There are other layers determined by things other than temperature, these layers include, the ozone layer, the Homeosphere, and the Heterosphere, as well as myriad others.
Weather and Climate
Weather is a series of measurements about the atmosphere, temperature, how much air is moving, in what direction, number, density, and height of clouds, and others. Weather is basically just heat and humidity in the air, and everything else is just the complex result of the interaction of the two. Most weather happens in the lower atmosphere, closer to the ground and the oceans.
Climate on the other hand is a statement about the kind of weather an area typically recieves, and because of that, the general conditions in that area.
Over all the difference between weather and climate is that weather is whatever is happening right now, in ten minutes, yesterday, next month, and so on, but climate is all the kinds of weather that do happen, and the things affected by that.
everybody cares about the weather because it affects everything. Bad weather often makes certain jobs impossible and makes many other things unpleasant. Things you want to know the weather for are things like, is it going to rain while you are trying to build a road, or will it be warm enough to swim, or one that everybody here in Saskatchwan knows, will I be able to see through the blowing snow when I drive to work today. For the reason that weather touches every aspect of our lives, everybody should and does care about the weather.
Climate on the other hand is a statement about the kind of weather an area typically recieves, and because of that, the general conditions in that area.
Over all the difference between weather and climate is that weather is whatever is happening right now, in ten minutes, yesterday, next month, and so on, but climate is all the kinds of weather that do happen, and the things affected by that.
everybody cares about the weather because it affects everything. Bad weather often makes certain jobs impossible and makes many other things unpleasant. Things you want to know the weather for are things like, is it going to rain while you are trying to build a road, or will it be warm enough to swim, or one that everybody here in Saskatchwan knows, will I be able to see through the blowing snow when I drive to work today. For the reason that weather touches every aspect of our lives, everybody should and does care about the weather.
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