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    CE 374K Hydrology, Lecture 4 Atmosphere and Atmospheric Water

    Uploaded by

    Khurram Sheraz
    This document provides an overview of atmospheric water and circulation. It discusses: 1) The energy balance of Earth and how heating is uneven between the equator and poles, leading to atmospheric circulation cells like the Hadley cell. 2) How the Intertropical Convergence Zone shifts north and south annually, bringing wet/dry seasons to places like India. 3) Key terms related to atmospheric water like vapor pressure, specific humidity, saturation vapor pressure, and relative humidity. It explains how these variables are calculated and related. 4) Texas has experienced severe drought in recent years, with over 90% of the state in some form of drought currently according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    CE 374K Hydrology, Lecture 4 Atmosphere and Atmospheric Water

    Uploaded by

    Khurram Sheraz
    57 views25 pages
    This document provides an overview of atmospheric water and circulation. It discusses: 1) The energy balance of Earth and how heating is uneven between the equator and poles, leading to atmospheric circulation cells like the Hadley cell. 2) How the Intertropical Convergence Zone shifts north and south annually, bringing wet/dry seasons to places like India. 3) Key terms related to atmospheric water like vapor pressure, specific humidity, saturation vapor pressure, and relative humidity. It explains how these variables are calculated and related. 4) Texas has experienced severe drought in recent years, with over 90% of the state in some form of drought currently according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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    AtmosphericWater

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    This document provides an overview of atmospheric water and circulation. It discusses: 1) The energy balance of Earth and how heating is uneven between the equator and poles, leading to atmospheric circulation cells like the Hadley cell. 2) How the Intertropical Convergence Zone shifts north and south annually, bringing wet/dry seasons to places like India. 3) Key terms related to atmospheric water like vapor pressure, specific humidity, saturation vapor pressure, and relative humidity. It explains how these variables are calculated and related. 4) Texas has experienced severe drought in recent years, with over 90% of the state in some form of drought currently according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    57 views25 pages

    CE 374K Hydrology, Lecture 4 Atmosphere and Atmospheric Water

    Uploaded by

    Khurram Sheraz
    This document provides an overview of atmospheric water and circulation. It discusses: 1) The energy balance of Earth and how heating is uneven between the equator and poles, leading to atmospheric circulation cells like the Hadley cell. 2) How the Intertropical Convergence Zone shifts north and south annually, bringing wet/dry seasons to places like India. 3) Key terms related to atmospheric water like vapor pressure, specific humidity, saturation vapor pressure, and relative humidity. It explains how these variables are calculated and related. 4) Texas has experienced severe drought in recent years, with over 90% of the state in some form of drought currently according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    CE 374K Hydrology, Lecture 4

    Atmosphere and Atmospheric water

    • Energy balance of the earth


    • Drought in Texas
    • Atmospheric circulation
    • Atmospheric water

    • Reading for next Tuesday – Applied Hydrology,


    Sections 3.4 to 3.4 Precipitation
    Energy Balance of Earth
    20 70
    100
    6
    6
    26
    4

    38
    15

    19

    21
    51 Sensible heat flux 7
    Latent heat flux 23
    http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/energy/radiation_balance.html
    Net Radiation
    http://geography.uoregon.edu/envchange/clim_animations/flash/netrad.html

    Mean annual net


    radiation over the
    earth and over the
    year is 105 W/m2
    Energy Balance in the San Marcos Basin from
    the NARR (July 2003)
    Note the very large amount of longwave radiation exchanged between land and
    atmosphere

    Average fluxes over the day


    600
    495
    400

    200 61
    72 112
    Flux (W/m2)

    3
    0

    nt
    rt

    nd
    ng

    ng

    e
    or
    -200
    ho

    bl
    te
    u
    o

    o
    h

    i
    La
    ro
    _L
    _L
    _S

    _S

    ns
    G

    Se
    D

    U
    D

    -400
    310
    415
    -600

    Net Shortwave = 310 – 72 = 238; Net Longwave = 415 – 495 = - 80


    Increasing carbon dioxide
    in the atmosphere (from
    about 300 ppm in
    preindustrial times)

    We are burning fossil


    carbon (oil, coal) at
    100,000 times the rate it
    was laid down in geologic
    time
    Absorption of energy by CO2
    Drought Monitor for Texas

    http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/archive.html
    Trends in Drought in Texas

    Currently, 91% of Texas is in some form of drought


    In the summer of 2011, Texas and Oklahoma experienced the hottest summer
    ever recorded in the history of the United States
    Source: John Nielson-Gammon
    What does the future hold?
    As temperatures rise, rain decreases….

    Temperature is expected to rise…

    whether due to natural variations


    or anthropogenic causes

    Sources: Danny Reible, John Nielson-Gammon


    10
    Heating of earth surface
    • Heating of earth
    surface is uneven
    – Solar radiation strikes
    perpendicularly near
    the equator (270
    W/m2)
    – Solar radiation strikes
    Amount of energy transferred from
    at an oblique angle equator to the poles is
    near the poles (90 approximately 4 x 109 MW
    W/m2)
    • Emitted radiation is
    Hadley circulation

    Atmosphere (and
    oceans) serve to transmit
    heat energy from the
    equator to the poles

    Warm air rises, cool air descends creating two huge convective
    cells.
    Atmospheric circulation
    Circulation cells
    Polar Cell
    1. Hadley cell
    2. Ferrel Cell
    Ferrel Cell 3. Polar cell

    Winds
    1. Tropical Easterlies/Trades
    2. Westerlies
    3. Polar easterlies

    Latitudes
    1. Intertropical
    convergence zone
    (ITCZ)/Doldrums
    2. Horse latitudes
    3. Subpolar low
    4. Polar high
    Shifting in Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)

    Owing to the tilt of the Earth's


    axis in orbit, the ITCZ shifts north
    and south. 

    Southward shift in January

    Creates wet Summers (Monsoons)


    and dry winters, especially in
    India and SE Asia
    Northward shift in July
    Structure of atmosphere
    Atmospheric water
    • Atmospheric water exists
    – Mostly as gas or water vapor
    – Liquid in rainfall and water droplets in clouds
    – Solid in snowfall and in hail storms
    • Accounts for less than 1/100,000 part of total
    water, but plays a major role in the hydrologic
    cycle
    Water vapor
    Suppose we have an elementary volume of atmosphere dV and
    we want quantify how much water vapor it contains

    mv
    Water vapor density v  dV
    dV
    ma ma = mass of moist air
    Air density a  mv = mass of water vapor
    dV

    Atmospheric gases:
    Nitrogen – 78.1%
    Oxygen – 20.9%
    Other gases ~ 1%
    http://www.bambooweb.com/articles/e/a/Earth's_atmosphere.html
    Specific Humidity, qv
    • Specific humidity
    measures the mass of
    v
    water vapor per unit
    mass of moist air qv 
    • It is dimensionless a
    Vapor pressure, e
    • Vapor pressure, e, is the
    pressure that water vapor
    exerts on a surface
    • Air pressure, p, is the total
    pressure that air makes on a
    surface
    • Ideal gas law relates
    pressure to absolute
    temperature T, Rv is the gas e   v RvT
    constant for water vapor
    • 0.622 is ratio of mol. wt. of
    water vapor to avg mol. wt. e
    of dry air (=18/28.9) qv  0.622
    p
    Saturation vapor pressure, es
    Saturation vapor pressure occurs when air is holding all the water vapor
    that it can at a given air temperature

     17.27T 
    es  611 exp 
     237.3  T 

    Vapor pressure is measured in Pascals (Pa), where 1 Pa = 1 N/m2

    1 kPa = 1000 Pa
    Relative humidity, Rh

    es

    e
    Rh  Relative humidity measures the percent
    of the saturation water content of the air
    es that it currently holds (0 – 100%)
    Dewpoint Temperature, Td

    Td T

    Dewpoint temperature is the air temperature


    at which the air would be saturated with its current
    vapor content
    Water vapor in an air column
    • We have three equations 2 Column
    describing column:
    – Hydrostatic air pressure,
    dp/dz = -rag Element, dz

    – Lapse rate of temperature,


    dT/dz = - a
    – Ideal gas law, p = raRaT
    • Combine them and 1
    integrate over column to
    get pressure variation g / Ra
     T2 
    elevation p2  p1  
     T1 
    Precipitable Water
    • In an element dz, the 2 Column
    mass of water vapor is
    dmp
    Element, dz
    • Integrate over the
    whole atmospheric
    column to get
    precipitable water,mp
    Area = A
    1
    • mp/A gives precipitable
    water per unit area in
    kg/m2 dm p  qv  a Adz
    Precipitable Water
    http://geography.uoregon.edu/envchange/clim_animations/flash/pwat.html

    Frontal rainfall in the winter

    Thunderstorm rainfall in the summer

    25 mm precipitable water divides


    frontal from thunderstorm rainfall

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