Geography 120 Ch. 6

the upward displacement of air that leads to adiabatic cooling and possible cloud formation. Normally over a cloud.

on the leeward side of a mountain, air descends the slope and warms by compression to create the rain shadow effect, an area of lower precipitation

• Cold Front- when cold air advances toward warmer air, the denser cold air displaces the lighter warm air ahead of it.
• Warm Front- when warm air is forced upward in much the same way that the orographic effect causes air to rise above a mountain barrier.

horizontal movement toward the center of a low pressure cell from all directions causing an accumulation of mass. this in turn causes air to rise and the fromation of rain and clouds.

lifting due to buoyancy. the tendency of a lighter fluid to rise above a denser one.

the air's susceptibiliy to uplift

• 1. Heating or Coooling of the Lower Atmosphere
• 2. Advection of cold and warm air at different levels
• 3. Advection of an Air Mass with a different ELR

areas in the troposphere when instead of the temperature decreases it acutually INCREASES with altitude.

• clouds above 6000 meters and are almost entirely composed of ice.
• cirrus-thin wispy coulds of ice
• cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus.

• occur between 2000-6000 meters above the surface and are usually composed of liquid droplets.
• Altostratus and Altocumulus

• below 2000 meters. layered clouds that form when extensive areas of stable air are lifted.
• stratus, stratocumulus and nimbostratus.

• occur when the air is absoluteluy or conditionally unstable.
• cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds