Please submit your work to me by the beginning of class.
These questions are for you to combine different ideas and apply them to situations not directly addressed in class or in the textbook. Think about the situation, and about the science that applies to it. See me for help if you are stuck.
Answer one question from Part 1 and one from Part 2.
Why do cyclonic storms rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere? Write a letter to your grandmother explaining how it works. If a simple diagram would make it easier for Grandma to understand, by all means include one.
You don’t actually have to mail the letter to your grandmother (though that would be cool), but you do need to turn it in to me.
When warm, moist air is suddenly pushed upward by an advancing cold front, it creates a “squall line” of distinct, discrete cumulonimbus thunder clouds. When warm, moist air in an advancing warm front gradually rises over a cold air mass, it produces an extensive stratus cloud layer, lowering from cirrostratus to altostratus and finally stratus or nimbostratus clouds. Why is there such a difference in cloud shapes and extent of coverage?
Thunderstorms can make hail, and stratus cloud can make ice pellets (frozen raindrops, called “sleet” by Americans). What is the difference between the structures of these two types of ice balls, and what is different about the way they form?
Tropical cyclones originate in the tropics and usually travel along curved paths, pushed west by trade winds, east by mid-latitude westerly winds, and various directions by other weather systems. However, they never, ever cross the Equator. Why not? What about the Equator would be lethal to hurricanes? Identify the effect and explain how it works.
If you aren’t quite sure of your answer, see me.
What, if anything, should be done to minimize future U.S. economic losses to hurricanes? Explain how these steps would save money.
Note that I didn’t mention saving lives. Just money here. Of course, lost lives do cost a lot of money.
While you are teaching your second-grade class about the different shapes of clouds, one of your more challenging students announces that his Daddy says that global warming is just politics, and that people can’t control the weather. What do you tell him (sigh…yes, your more challenging students will usually be boys) and the class?
Write your answer as what you will actually say, not “I would tell the class that…”. You may indicate what you would do (write on the blackboard, telephone the student’s Daddy, run in tears from the room, etc.) as well.
Explain why, all other things being equal, global warming may cause future tropical cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons) to be more intense.
To answer this question fully, you will need to identify the energy contrast that powers tropical cyclones, and to identify how and why global warming will affect that energy contrast.
Explain why, all other things being equal, global warming may cause future mid-latitude cyclones to be milder.
To answer this question fully, you will need to identify the energy contrast that powers mid-latitude cyclones, and to identify how and why global warming will affect that energy contrast.
Take your choice of the tasks in Part 2. Do not submit answers to more than one of them. Your answer should thoroughly address all points of the question. An adequate answer will be several paragraphs long.
Warning: Do not turn in paper that has ragged edges! If you write your work in a spiral-bound notebook, trim the edge before submitting it. Papers with ragged edges will be returned unmarked.
You may also submit your answer using the “Assignments” tool in WyoSakai.
Copyright © 2006, Richard Barrans
Revised: 20 August 2011. Maintained by Richard Barrans.
URL: http://www.barransclass.com/astr1070/hwk/hwk_03_cyclones_change.html