RYAN ARIFIN

ARYAN BHATNAGAR

The atmosphere is very important for the Earth! The weather and wind you see everyday all happen in the atmosphere!

Without the atmosphere, Earth would be completely different.

If you think weather was enough for the atmosphere, think again! The atmosphere protects us from flying rocks and debris in space. Just look at the moon!

The moon is covered in craters because it has no atmosphere to protect it- ouch! Lucky for us,

meteors that head towards Earth burn up in the atmosphere. Shooting stars is the atmosphere in action!

Think of Earth in space like being on a beach. If you stay out too long, you'll get sunburned!

Similarly, if Earth stayed in space, it'll get sunburned too!

Ultra violet rays are what causes sunburns and luckily, Earth has really good sunscreen. The atmosphere prevents unhealthy amounts of

ultraviolet radiation from reaching the surface, helping life live!

The atmosphere blankets Earth in layers.

The layer we live in is called the troposphere. This is where all the weather

happens.

The next layer is the stratosphere. The air

here is much more calmer and is where airplanes fly. This is

also where the ozone layer is.

The layer above the stratosphere is the

mesosphere. This is where all the space rocks burn

up!

The fourth layer is the thermosphere. This is where the northern

lights occur because of the sun!.

The Sun is Earth's father. Everything

on Earth is possible because of the Sun's energy!

Without the Sun, you will not be

having a fun time!

The Sun causes weather!

The Sun causes wind!

The Sun causes currents!

The Sun allows life!

All across the world, different areas have different air pressures. This is because

different areas get different amounts of Sun.

When you are enjoying Summer, the other side of the world is

dealing with Winter! That's a huge difference of sunlight!

The different amounts of sunlight in places

causes convection currents in the

atmosphere as well as the ocean!

Through convection, winds and currents are

created!

The warmer the air is, the lower the pressure is. Think of pressure like ice cream on a cone. When it is hotter, the ice cream starts to melt and the molecules of ice cream are

further apart.

Many different weather patterns

come with high pressure.

Areas of high pressure are called anti cyclones.

Shown on a weather map by "H"!

High pressure usually means sunny and dry days to enjoy!

The colder the air is, the higher the pressure.

Remember it like this: the higher you are, the

colder it is. In other words, the colder it

is, the higher the pressure is!

Areas of Low pressure are called cyclones.

Shown on a weather map by "L"!

Low pressure areas are usually

associated with stormy weather, clouds, rain and strong winds.

The Earth rotating counter clockwise on its axis creates the Coriolis Effect.

The Coriolis Effect is what causes

cyclones to spin counter clockwise

in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Coriolis Effect is also what causes

anti cyclones to spin clockwise in

the Northern Hemisphere!

Have you ever thrown a ball up and expected it to come down straight to you, but it goes off a

little to the side?

Wind is made by different air pressures

on earth.

Wind is air moving from areas of high pressure to areas of

less air pressure.

As the sun heats up the surface we live on, the atmosphere gets hotter too!

Some parts of the world receive direct rays of

sunlight from the sun all year and are always

warm.

Other places receive indirect rays of sunlight, so the weather is colder.

Warm air, which is less dense than cold air, rises. Then

cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air,

Forming wind currents!

These are wind currents!

The equator gets the Sun's direct rays. Here, air is heated and rises, leaving low pressure areas behind. Moving to about thirty degrees

north and south of the equator, the warm air from the equator begins to cool and sink.

Between thirty degrees latitude and the equator, most of the cooling sinking air moves back to the equator. The rest of the air flows toward the poles.

The trade winds are air movements toward the equator.They are warm,

steady breezes that blow almost continuously.

The Coriolis Effect makes the trade winds appear to be curving

to the west, whether they are traveling to the equator from

the south or north hemispheres.

The doldrums are an area of calm weather. The trade winds coming from the south and the north meet near the equator. These trade winds Create upward winds as they

are heated, so there are no surface winds.

Fun Fact: The word Doldrum is fun to say.

Between thirty and sixty degrees latitude, the winds that move toward the poles appear to curve to the east.

Because winds are named from the direction in which they originate, these winds

are called prevailing westerlies.

Prevailing westerlies in the Northern Hemisphere cause many of the weather movements across the United States and Canada.

In the Northern Hemisphere, westerlies spiral to the right.

In the Southern Hemisphere they

spiral to the left!

At about sixty degrees latitude in both hemispheres, the prevailing westerlies join with the polar easterlies to reduce upward motion. The

polar easterlies form when the atmosphere over the poles cools.

This cool air then sinks and spreads over the

surface. As the air flows away from the poles, it is turned to the west by the

Coriolis effect.

jet stream is a fast flowing, river of air found in the atmosphere at around 12 km above the surface of the Earth. They form at the

boundaries of air masses with many differences in temperature

Because of the Coriolis Effect, the streams flow west to east, moving kind of like a wave at lower speeds than that of the actual wind within the flow.

On a warm summer day along the coast, the different heating of land and sea creates local winds called sea breezes.

As air above the land surface is heated by the Sun. it begins to rise because of heating faster than the air above the sea. To replace the

rising air, cooler air is drawn in from the sea. This is the sea breeze, and can create nice cooling on hot summer afternoons.

A land breeze occurs at night, when the land cools faster than the sea. In this,

The air above the sea is warmer than the air above the land. Heat rises, pulling in air from the cooler land

surface.

Have you ever lost your hat or your ball while you were playing on the beach?

Then you know­ that the sea doesn't stay still! If you didn't get your item back, it’s probably on it's way to the other side of the world!

There are a number of ocean currents found around the Earth. A current is like a river within the ocean, flowing from one place

to another. These currents are caused by differences in temperature, differences in salinity, and by wind. Currents are

responsible for the movement of the water found in Earth’s oceans.

surface ocean currents flow in a regulr pattern but the are all not the same. Some currents are deep and narrow, other currents are shallow and wide.

The water at the ocean surface is moved primarily bywinds that blow in a certain patterns because of the earth's spin and the coriolis effect. winds are able to move the top 400 meters of the ocean creating surface ocean currents,

Deep water currents, also called thermohaline circulation, are found below 400 meters and make up about 90% of the ocean. Like surface currents, gravity plays a role in the creation of deep water currents but these are mainly caused by density differences in the water.

Have you ever played in the snow, rain, sleet, or even getting hit by hail.

Rain are droplets of water falling from cloudsin the skythat are bigger than 0.5 mm. Droplets of water that are about 0.2mm to 0.5mm big are called drizzle Rain is a kind ofprcipitation. Precipitation is any kind of water that falls from clouds in the sky, like rain, Hail, Sleet and snow Rain is part of the Water Cycle.

sleet is just rain drops that freeze into ice pellets before reaching the ground. Sleet usually bounces when hitting a surface and does not stick to objects.

is a lump of ice that falls out of a storm cloud.

have you ever played outside in snow

now is formed when water vaporgoes under deposition, which is when water vapor changes directly to ice without first becoming a liquid, high in the atmosphere at a temperature of less than 32°F and then falls to the ground.

A weather front is the boundary where two masses of air with

different air pressures and temperatures collide. Fronts cause

all kinds of weather!

There are four types of fronts: warm fronts, cold fronts, stationary fronts,

and occluded fronts.

A warm front is when a slowly moving warm air mass collides with a slowly moving cold air

mass.

The cold air has Higher pressure,

causing the warm air to rise. This usually causes clouds, rain,

and storms.

Even it is a warm front, it's not necessarily warm!

The symbol for a warm front on a weather map is:

A cold front is created when a fast moving cold air mass runs into a slowly

moving air mass.

As we know, the cold air sinks underneath the

warm air. As the warm air rises, it cools. It becomes cold enough

for the water in the air to become liquid water!

The weather at a cold front all depends on the water vapor in the air!

Because cold fronts move fast, they cause very fast weather changes. Strong winds and thunderstorms are usually at cold

fronts. If there is enough water in the warm air, heavy rain or even snow might fall.

The symbol for a cold front on a weather

map is:

Sometimes cold and warm air masses meet, but neither has the force to move each other.

The two air masses face each other in a "standoff". The front that's created

is called a stationary front!

Where the warm and cold air meet, water in the air forms into rain, snow, fog, or clouds.

A stationary front can stay over an area

for several days!

The symbol for a stationary front on a

weather map is:

Occluded fronts are the most complex weather situation. It is when a warm air mass is caught between two cooler

air masses.

The cooler air moves beneath the warm air and pushes it

upwards. The two cooler air masses even mix!

The warm air is actually cut off, or occluded, from the ground!

As the warm air cools and the water in the air condenses, the

weather becomes cloudy and rainy.

The weather symbol for an occluded

front on the weather map is:

Hurricanes use use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why

they form only over warm ocean waters near the

equator. The warm, moist air over the ocean rises upward

from near the surface, causing an area of lower air

pressure below.

Air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in to the low pressure area. That air becomes warm and moist and rises. As the warm air

continues to rise, the surrounding air swirls in to take its place. As the warmed, moist air rises and cools off, the water in the air forms clouds. The

"conveyor belt" is fed by the ocean's heat and water evaporating from the surface.

Because of the Coriolis effect, storms in the northern

hemisphere spin counterclockwise and the

southern hemisphere vice versa.

As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the center. It is very calm and clear in the eye, with very low air

pressure. Higher pressure air from above flows down

into the eye.

Tornados are violently

spinning winds in the form of a

funnel shape

They are usually created by a super thunderstorm. During the storm cold air and warm air combine in a set pattern:

the cold air drops as the warm air rises. The warm air eventually twists into a spiral and forms the funnel

cloud that we all know as a tornado!.

The formation of a tornado follows a clear set of steps.

1.there is a change in wind direction and an increase in wind speed. This change happens at an increasing altitude and creates an invisible horizontal spinning effect in the lower atmosphere.

2. rising air within the thunderstorm’s updraft tilts the rotating air from horizontal to vertical.

3. an area of rotation, 3-10 km wide is contained within the storm. This is where the strongest tornadoes form. Then a lower cloud base in the center of the storm becomes a rotating wall cloud. This area can be nearly rain-free.

4. a tornado develops and starts to wreak its destruction.

Scary!

he dew point is condenses into liquid water. the temperature where water vapour condenses into liquid.

A THERMOMETER measures the air temperature.

A BAROMETER measures air pressure.

A SLING PSYCHROMETER measures relative humidity, using the cooling effect of evaporation.

A RAIN GAUGE measures the amount of rain that has fallen over a specific time period.

A WIND VANE is an instrument that determines the direction from which the wind is blowing.

An ANEMOMETER measures wind speed.

WEATHER MAPS indicate atmospheric conditions above a large portion of the Earth's surface.

A HYGROMETER measures the water vapor content of air or the humidity.

A WEATHER BALLOON measures weather conditions higher up in the atmosphere.

A COMPASS is a navigational instrument for finding directions.

WEATHER SATELLITES are used to photograph and track large-scale air movements.

Work T-Chart

Ryan

● Atmosphere● Convection● High and Low Pressure● Hurricanes● Tornados● Sun and Sun's Energy● Weather Maps

Dew PointInstruments usedOcean CurrentsTypes Of PREcipitationWind currentsTypes of CloudsIsothem and isobarHow scientists get images

Aryan