Can someone solve this for me? To obtain rich data on the state of the atmospher
ID: 153850 • Letter: C
Question
Can someone solve this for me?
To obtain rich data on the state of the atmosphere, the US Weather Service launches weather balloons (called radiosondes) twice a day from weather stations around the country. The closest to us is in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which is located about ~ 200 miles north of Chicago on the west coast of Lake Michigan. The balloons rise high into the atmosphere, burst, and then plummet back to the surface. Use the data in Figure 1 to answer the following questions 35 35 Figure 1: Atmospheric profile:s of temperature (left) and air pressure (right) from a radiosonde launched on 30 30 25 25 20 g September 22, 2016 from 5Green Bay, Wisconsin 10 °(data source: NOAA) 15 10 -60-40-20 0 20 0 250 500 750 1000 pressure (mbar) temperature (°C) A) Write four observations about the state of the atmosphere over Green Bay, Wisconsin. Each observation should be a sentence. (8 points) Make sure you are giving observations and NOT inferences/interpretations! B) Use your observations and your knowledge about the typical structure of the atmosphere to annotate Figure 2. Include: the names of the layers of the atmosphere that are visible on this radiosonde's journey AND the names of the boundaries separating these layers. (7 points) C) Based on the prevailing wind direction in the Northern Hemisphere mid latitudes, where should most of the radiosondes launched from Green Bay land once they have plummeted back to Earth? Write at least two sentences answering the question and giving the why using your knowledge of atmospheric circulation/prevailing wind directions. (5 points)Explanation / Answer
1) Four basic observations about the nature of the atmosphere:
a) Temperature of the ambient atmosphere decreases steadily up to an elevation of about 13 km above the ground.
b) In the present case the temperature decreases by {20-(-60)}°C=80°C for the change in height of 13 km. So, the temperature gradient in that specific interval of height=(80°C/13 km)=6.15°C/km.
c) After 13 km altitude, temperature does not decreases to that extent, rather increase at further altitude.
d) Changes in the atmospheric pressures is concordant with the change in temperature. Pressure decreases with increasing altitude and then after 13 km altitude the atmospheric pressure assumes a near constant value.
2) Atmospheric temperatures decreases steadily up to an elevation of 12/13 km. This layer of the atmosphere is known as Troposphere. The main source of heat for the atmosphere is the reflected heat from the surface of the earth. Atmosphere itself absorbs very little amount of heat directly from the solar radiations. For this reason at the lower levels of the atmosphere the temperature of the air remains the highest. As we move upward into the higher levels we encounter lower temperature. In the Troposphere layer the temperature decreases by about 6.5°C/km. Air in this layer of the atmosphere is very unstable and very much prone to mixing. Hot air masses, being lighter, try to get at the higher levels and the colder air masses try to get at the lower levels of the atmosphere. This causes major mixing of these two types of air masses.
After 13 km elevation the temperature of the atmosphere does not change considerably and remains at the same levels up to the elevations of 35 km. This layer of the atmosphere is known as stratosphere. In this layer, temperature remains almost constant up to an elevation of 30-35 km. Then the temperature increases with increasing elevations. This phenomenon is caused by the absorption of heat by the ozone layers at the higher levels of the layer.
3) Due to the Coriolis effects winds blowing from the subtropical regions towards the equator get deflected in the western directions in both the hemispheres. Due to this reason in the northern hemisphere winds blow from the northeastern directions towards southwest. So, radiosondes launched from Green Bay will reach the earth at Ashwaubenon or DePere locations or nearby.