Assignments/Labs

The Principle of Positive Buoyancy
Today in class, the principle of positive buoyancy was demonstrated with a piece of newspaper and a lantern. To do this, the four corners of a newspaper were folded into the center and then taped to secure them. Then, the four outer corners were lit on fire relatively at the same time so that the newspaper would start to float. Unfortunately, the newspaper didn't float much at all after the multiple test rounds we tried. However, the take off of the lanterns turned out to be very successful.

Air Masses

Arctic: Extremely cold, forms poleward

Continental Polar: Cold, dry and stable air. Forms over snow-covered enclosed northern continental land masses. 

Maritime Polar: Cool, moist and unstable air. Forms over oceans and temps are usually warmer than continents. 

Maritime Tropical: Warm and very humid. Usually form over oceans and effect southern states. 

Continental Tropical: Hot and dry. Usually carried from Mexico and unstable. Effecting the southern states. 

Weather Map Symbols

A cold front, warm front, and stationary front are labeled on weather map above. Warm fronts bring warm air masses and cold fronts bring cold air masses. A stationary front is when a cold and warm front meet but neither front is strong enough to replace one another. The yellow circle labeled 'highest wind speed' shows where the winds would be strongest on this map because the isobars are closest together in that region. Lastly, the high and low pressure areas are labeled and the rotation of the wind direction is also shown.

Weather News

Around the world at the Olympics, the winds have caused quite the problem. Leading to adjustments having to be made in the skiing schedule late in the week. The large low pressure system bringing the snow showers and the gusty breeze coming from the northeast is what was causing non ideal weather for skiing. 

Jet Stream

The pattern shows a strong movement from the southwest direction. Stream speed becomes faster as they move north and meet the cooler northern temps which increase its strength. Speeds topping out at 160 near Maine. 

These two images show the U.S. snow cover and surface temperature. As you can see, the line of cold to warm matches with the jet stream path. The snow cover line matches directly with the temperature line changing from warm in the south to cool in the north. 

Satellite Information

There are three types of ways to view satellite data: infrared, visible, and water vapor. The image above is a satellite image of water vapor and it appears that the movement of the water vapor is correlating with the flow of the jet stream along the states which starts in the southwest and moves towards the northeast.