o We complain about the weather, but no one does anything about it.
o It is a play of giants, rising, spinning, sink, sweep across the continent, E to N, S to N, N to S
o Water with ability to absorb and release heat energy fuels the drama
o Weather vs. Climate
o Meteorology-not study of m.
o Air Masses:
· Arctic
· Polar
· Equadoric
· Tropical
· AAntarctic
o Moisture:
· m—maritime—wet
· c—continental—dry
o Humidity:
· mT = Gulf/Atlantic air mass, late spring to early fall active vs.
· mt. = Pacific-low moisture content
o As air masses migrate onshore they take the characteristics of land—cake effects of snow
o Rain: for air mass
o Lifting:
· Lift—rise—cool
· Saturate, condense, precipitate on dust
· Convergent lifting-lifting flows toward low pressure
· Convection-surface hearting
· Orographic-over a mountain, rain shadow, leeward
· Frontal-contrasting air masses lift
o Fronts-leading edge of advancing air mass, cold or warm
o Cirrus clouds last night
o Squall line
o Dramatic weather, down drafts and wind, broken arm sailor
o Violent weather—cyclonic storms, low pressure
· Thunderstorms-release of condensation energy, heat and air which rises, causing up drafts-rain friction drag causes down drafts
· Lightning-5 million lightning strikes a day on earth, 100 million volts-super heat air (25-50,000 F), violent and air expansion makes thunder
· Hurricanes- West 180 w
· Typhoons-Post East 180 e
· Cyclones-ocean
o Collapsing aquifers: (Fresno)
· After years of groundwater mining, land levels digged 10 # meters = 33’ soil compaction and water removal
o Pollution-
· Remember recently here when your favorite or local gas station was closed? –Tanks replaced to cease leaking of MTBE, significant pollution, CA aquifers
o Supply—Available Global Water
· North America = 5,960/518 (11.5) vs. Africa = 4220/1323 (3.4), Asia = 13200/4778 (2.7)
o We all live downstream-e.g. New Orleans-gets water from all the other Mississippi, have used it, runoff from farms-fertilizer, pesticides, treated and untreated sewage, gas, oil from urban streets, so called Cancer ally
o Our use = billion gallons, 1340 gal/person in 1990, 1280/person in 2000, but population is rising
· 48% hydro power
· 11% industry
· 11% domestic
· 30% farming
o Salt Water Intrusion-Bay Delta issue
o Ch. 9-Weather, Water Cycle, Resources
o In the last 2 chapters we saw how exchanges of water, energy on the atmosphere drive earth’s weather.
o Did you see on last Thursday high cirrus clouds coming in and signaling an advancing front?
o Fortunately, water is s renewable resource (unlike oil, gas), constantly flowing through the:
· Hydrologic Cycle
· Global Water Balance-where water is and people are
· Water Budgets-Receipts = precipitation, Expenses = evapotranspiration( plants) evaporation
· Fig. 91-show
· Fig. 92-budget
o Time, residence of a H2O molecule:
· 10 days in atmosphere
· 3000-10,000 years in ocean aquifer, glacial ice
o System memory-heat energy is stored in soil, water budget
o Key is to determine the demands of crop plants, with evaporation, soil moisture requirements—just know there is higher areas of rain evaporation that affects growing seasons
o 249-254—260-270 groundwater, about half of US population uses groundwater, which comes from the sky
o 70 times more water in ground than in streams and lakes
· It’s not quite recyclable due to the amount of time it took to accumulate
o Aquifer-a rock sponge with pores that are saturated and hold water = table
· Confined pressure = springs
· Unconfined wells = pumped
· May be formed during different climate conditions
· Now dry and overused
· “fossil water”
o Groundwater-invisible to eye, slow to appreciate complexity
o Water budget-esp. sugarcane
· Loss of ag. Land-due to water shortage
· Creates land crisis-land goes to development and in storm drains, runoff
· Less into recharge
o HI islands
· Ancient water—too short for streams
o Evapotranspiration
o Evaporation
o Advective = horizontal movement of air, when air mass migrates from one temp. to another
o Adiabatic = a parcel of air cools by expansion up/down heats up by descending or contracting, warming or cooling rates for air parcels
o Radiation = giving off heat = as in cooling off a parcel of ground, chilling air above it to dew point
o Precipitation record = Mt. Waialeale, Kauai = 486”/yr = 40.5 ft.
o Water conflicts:
· Dams-Bonneville, OR
· Damming the Columbia River
· River water
· Salmon now endangered species-fisheries, sport, commercial, hydropower, wildlife, agriculture
· Delta, SF Bay-needs lots of freshwater to survive, push back saltwater intrusion