David Balczo

Assignments

Williams: Chp 1; Chp 2
Reader: Section I
Browse---Section II, 10, 15, 27, 28
Browse---Section III, 30-41
Read --- Section IV, 67-80
Browse---Section V, 280-285

Housekeeping

- reviewed links on class website and the difference between cumulus and stratus.

Homework

Keep current on the path of hurricane Frances.

Weather Satellites

Weather satellites provide information to all countries for free. The US has two, on located on the west and one on the east.

They are located 22,500 miles orbiting, in order to keep a stationary position above the earth a focused on a specific area.

They have two types of sensors, visible and infrared. The visible sensors send back the same images we would be able to see with our eyes. The infrared uses temperature send us back images. The range of temperatures are then color coated so that we can understand them.

The suns light is made up of three primary colors, red, blue and green. Light reflects of the atmosphere in clouds and the sensor picks it up. Cumulus clouds are very dense and show up very white on the visible sensor. Fog on the other hand is not and does not reflect as much light so it shows up as grey on the images.

When the sun goes down, the infrared sensor picks up temperature. Cumulus clouds are –40degrees and are coded white, while fog is 16 degrees and are coded grey. These are false color images that are used so we can understand.

The images that are sent back are important because if we can see were the cumulus clouds are, we can better inform people where rain or hail will fall and where lightening may strike.

Tropics

The lines that run along the earth east to west are called latitude and the ones that go north and south are longitude.

Latitude for the equator is 0 degrees. 23.5 miles north of it and 23.5 miles south is the band called the tropics. The section located in the northern hemisphere is called the tropic of cancer and the southern is the tropic of Capricorn.

Hurricanes

Hurricane winds exceed 74 mph. They are named alphabetically by alternating girls and boys names. There are more hurricanes occurring in the eastern pacific that in the western Atlantic, but the you do not hear bout them as much be cause they often his less densely populated areas on the western side of this continent. When they do it is not in the US.

Hurricanes on the eastern pacific tend to die out because they are very sensitive to water temperatures. Water must be 82 degrees or higher to keep it going.

The hurricane scale is from 1-5, with 5 being the highest. To classify a hurricane as five, winds must be at least 135 knots.

The majority of people that die in a hurricane are killed not by the wind but by the storm surge. The sea can rise up to 20 feet, wiping out homes and people.