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Purpose: To demonstrate how rising and sinking motion and the distribution of heat in our atmosphere plays a pivotal role in the small-scale and general climate of our planet. Students should be able to recognize general atmospheric patterns and classify the weather at locations based off rising/sinking motion and/or surface and upper-level convergence/divergence. These skills are vital in connecting basic atmospheric principles and understanding the “why” behind different climate patterns.
Learning Objectives: The purpose of this lab is to gain an understanding of how convection looks vertically in our atmosphere, and how this simple experiment can be replicated on many scales. Additionally, this lab will demonstrate the fundamentals of the General Circulation of the atmosphere and the 3-cell model.
Convection
Convection
Transfer of heat by the mass movement of a fluid (e.g., water/air)
Convection: vertical air motions
Advection: horizontal air motions
In the atmosphere, this is the main way of moving heat
Image Description: Convection
A rising warm air bubble transfers heat by convection. Remember: at the same pressure, warm air is less dense than cold air
There are four scales of the atmosphere that we will define: microscale, mesoscale, synoptic, and planetary. From left to right, they increase in time scale and spatial scale. Each have different phenomena that occur on those scales.
Our climate system boils down to large-scale phenomena, often referred to as the General Circulation of the Atmosphere or the 3-cell model.
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