Fri., Sept. 24, 2010
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I got the music started a little late today and only had time for one song from Muse ("Undisclosed Desires"). 

Quiz #1 has been graded and was returned in class today.  Please check your quiz carefully for grading errors and make sure the points missed have been added up correctly.  There were 195 pts possible on the quiz.  You can figure out your percentage grade using the following formula

% grade = 100% x (195- pts missed)/195

The number in the top left hand corner of your quiz is the number of points you missed.  If the number is + you earned over 100% on the quiz.

The Optional Assignment #1 was also returned today.  If you don't see a score marked you earned full credit (0.5 extra credit points).

NOTE: You shouldn't throw away any graded papers that are returned to you until you have received (and are happy with) your grade at the end of the semester.  In the event an error is made calculating your grade you may need to bring in some of your graded work.

Here's what I had hoped to get through today:
1. A couple of cold and warm front video tapes (if I could get the VCR to work).
2. A quick summary of the weather conditions that precede and follow passage
of cold and warm fronts
3. Locating cold and warm fronts on a surface weather map
A Bonus 1S1P Assignment
4. A quick look at upper level charts
5. A quick look at the deadly dangers associated with the fall and spring equinoxes.
(the fall equinox was Wednesday this week)
6. A quick look at what we will be covering next

In the end we did get through items 1, 2, 3, and 5.  We'll worry about 4 and 6 next Monday.

We watched a couple of short video segments at the beginning of class.  The first used colored liquids with slightly different densities (a water/glycerin mixture) to show how a cold air mass can lift a warmer, less dense air mass.  The video segment also tried to show how warm air overruns a receding mass of colder denser air.  The second video was a time lapse movie of an actual cold front that passed through Tucson on Easter Sunday, April 4, in 1999.  It actually snowed for a short time during the passage of the cold front.  Click here to see the cold front video (it may take a minute or two to transfer the data from the server computer in the Atmo. Dept., be patient).  Remember the video shows a time lapse movie of the frontal passage.  The front seems to race through Tucson in the video, it wasn't moving as fast as the video might lead you to believe.

The concept of air masses and especially the names of air masses was introduced at the beginning of class.  This is mostly because we might have occasion to refer to air masses by their different names.

An air mass acquires its characteristics by remaining over a fairly homogeneous surface for some time it will take on the characteristics of the surface.  Air masses are classified and named according to their moisture and temperature properties.


Continental polar air masses are cold and dry (the coldest, driest, and densest of the 4 air masses.  Martime polar air masses are somewhat warmer (oceans can't get as cold as land masses) and are moister than cP air masses (though not as moist as mT air masses).  Continental polar air masses are warm and relatively dry though usually not as dry as cP air masses.  Martime tropical air masses are the moistest air masses and can potentially produce the greatest amounts of precipitation.

This next picture shows where these different types of air masses originate.



We most of the class today learning about some of the weather conditions that precede and follow passage of warm and cold fronts. 

A crossectional view of a cold front is shown below:


Here are some of the specific weather changes
Weather variable
 Behind
 Passing
 Ahead
Temperature
 cool, cold, colder*
warm
Dew Point
 usually much drier*
may be moist (though that is often
not the case here in the desert southwest)
Winds
 northwest
 gusty winds (dusty)
 from the southwest
Clouds, Weather
 clearing
 rain clouds, thunderstorms in
narrow band along the front
(if the warm air mass is moist)
 might see some high clouds
Pressure
 rising
 reaches a minimum
 falling

* the coldest air might follow passage of a cold front by a day or two.  Nighttime temperatures often plummet in the cold dry air behind a cold front.  Note the green (cool), blue (cold), purple (colder) sequence is the picture above behind the cold front

A temperature drop is probably the most obvious change associated with a cold front.  Here is southern Arizona, gusty winds and a wind shift are also often noticeable when a cold front passes.

The pressure changes that precede and follow a cold front are not something we would observe or feel but are very useful when trying to locate a front on a weather map.

In the next figure we started with some weather data plotted on a surface map using the station model notation. 


Before trying to locate a cold front, we needed to draw in a few isobars and map out the pressure pattern.  In some respects fronts are like spokes on a wheel - they rotate counterclockwise around centers of low pressure.  It makes sense to first determine the location of the low pressure center.

Isobars are drawn at 4 mb increments above and below a starting value of 1000 mb.  Some of the allowed values are shown on the right side of the figure (992, 996, 1000, 1004, 1008 etc).  The highest pressure on the map is 1003.0 mb, the lowest is 994.9 mb.  You must choose from the allowed list of isobar values and pick only the values that fall between the high and low pressure values on the map.  Thus we have drawn in  996 mb and 1000 mb isobars.

The next step was to try to locate the warm air mass in the picture.  Temperatures are in the 60s in the lower right portion of the map; this area has been circled in red.

The cold front on the map seems to be properly postioned.  The air ahead of the front is warm, moist, has winds blowing from the S or SW, and the pressure is falling.  These are all things you would expect to find ahead of a cold front.

Clouds and a rain shower were located right near the front which is typically where they are found.

The air behind the front is colder, drier, winds are blowing from the NW, and the pressure is falling.  Note how the cold front is positioned at the leading edge of the cold air mass, not necessarily in front of the coldest air in the cold air mass.

Next we went through the same procedure with warm fronts.
Here's the crossectional view


Here ae the weather changes in advance of and following the frontal passage.
Weather Variable
 Behind (after)
 Passing
 Ahead (before)
Temperature
 warmer
cool
Dew point
 may be moister
drier
Winds
 from S or SW
from E or SE
Clouds, Weather
 clearing
wide variety of clouds well ahead of the front,
may be a wide variety of types of precipitation also.
Pressure
 rising
 minimum
 falling

And here is the surface map analysis:


Note the extensive cloud coverage and precipitation found ahead of the warm front.  There is a pretty good temperature and dew point difference on opposite sides of the warm front and a clear shift in wind directions.  Pressure is falling ahead of the warm front and rising behind.

There was also pretty clear evidence of a cold front on this map.  The cold front wasn't draw on the map we did in class.

A new Bonus 1S1P Assignment will give you a chance to draw in some isobars and locate a cold and warm front on your own.  This Surface Weather Map Analysis is due next Fri., Oct. 1.

The fall (autumnal) equinox was on Wednesday (Thursday in some locations) this week.  That's something we celebrate in NATS 101.  We would have had some kind of a celebration if it hadn't been quiz day.


The figure above shows the earth orbiting the sun.  On or around Dec. 21st, the winter solstice, the north pole is tilted away from the sun.  Days are less than 12 hours long in the northern hemisphere and the sun is low in the sky.  Both factors reduce the amount of sunlight energy reaching the ground.  On June 21st, the summer solstice, the north pole is tilted toward the sun.  Days are more than 12 hours long in the northern hemisphere and the sun is high in the sky at noon.  A lot more sunlight energy reaches the ground; that's why it is summer.

The equinoxes are a time of transition.  On the equinoxes, the day and night are each 12 hours long everywhere on earth (except perhaps at the poles).  On the equinoxes, the sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west.  The picture below shows the position of the sun at sunrise (around 6:30 am on the spring and fall equinox in Tucson).


The figure at left traces out the path will follow in the sky on the equinox.  The sun rises in the east, moves to the southern sky and begins to get higher in the sky


At noon you need to look about 60 degrees above the southern horizon to see the sun.  The sun is only 34.5 degrees above the southern horizon on the winter solstice in Tucson and is 81.5 degrees above the horizon, nearly overhead, at noon on the summer solstice.


On the equinoxes the sun sets exactly in the west at about 6:30 pm.

This is the 2 pm class.  Most of you are more likely (perhaps) to see the sun set than see the sun rise.  The figure below shows you about what you would see if you looked west on Speedway (from Treat Ave.) at sunset.  In the winter the sun will set south of west, in the summer north of west (probably further south and north than shown here).  On the equinoxes the sun sets exactly in the west.


Several years ago I positioned myself in the median near the intersecton of Treat and Speedway and pointed my camera west.  I took a multiple exposure photograph of the sun over a 2 hour period that ended at sunset.  I'll try to bring the slide photograph to class one of these days.

If you aren't careful, you can get yourself seriously injured, even killed, on or around the equinoxes. 

I didn't have time to show the following figure in class.



June 21, the summer solstice, is the longest day of the year (about 14 hours of daylight in Tucson).  The days have slowly been getting shorter since then. This will continue up until December 21, the winter solstice, when there will be about 10 hours of daylight.  After that the days will start to lengthen as we make our way back to the summer solstice.

The length of the day changes most rapidly on the equinoxes.