Precipitation - Types Of Precipitation, Formation Of Precipitation, Precipitation Formation In Warm Clouds, Precipitation Formation In Cold Clouds - Human influences on precipitation
air water droplets atmosphere
In meteorology, precipitation is water in either solid or liquid form that falls in Earth's atmosphere. Major forms of precipitation include rain, snow, and hail. When air is lifted in the atmosphere, it expands and cools. Cool air cannot hold as much water in vapor form as warm air, and the condensation of vapor into droplets or ice crystals may eventually occur. If these droplets or crystals continue to grow to large sizes, they will eventually be heavy enough to fall to Earth's surface.
Precipitation is obviously important to humankind as a source of drinking water and for agriculture. It cleanses the air and maintains the levels of lakes, rivers, and oceans, which are sources of food and recreation. Interestingly, human activity may influence precipitation in a number of ways, some of which are intentional, and some of which are quite unintentional. These are discussed below.
Additional Topics
Even the cleanest air contains aerosol particles (solid or liquid particles suspended in the air). Some of these particles are called cloud condensation nuclei, or CCN, because they provide favorable sites on which water vapor can condense. Air is defined to be fully saturated, or have a relative humidity of 100%, when there is no net transfer of vapor molecules between the air and a plane (flat) …
Although large quantities of liquid water will freeze as the temperature drops below 32°F (0°C), cloud droplets sometimes are "supercooled;" that is, they may exist in liquid form at lower temperatures down to about -40°F (-40°C). At temperatures below -40°F (-40°C), even very small droplets freeze readily, but at intermediate temperatures (…
Earth is unique in our solar system in that it contains water, which is necessary to sustain life as we know it. Water that falls to the ground as precipitation is critically important to the hydrologic cycle, the sequence of events that moves water from the atmosphere to the earth's surface and back again. Some precipitation falls directly into the oceans, but precipitation that falls on l…
The irregular and frequently unpredictable nature of precipitation has led to a number of direct attempts to either stimulate or hinder the precipitation process for the benefit of humans. In warm clouds, large hygroscopic particles have been deliberately introduced into clouds in order to increase droplet size and the likelihood of collision and coalescence to form raindrops. In cold clouds, ice …
Acid rain is a phenomenon that occurs when acidic pollutants are incorporated into precipitation. It has been observed extensively in the eastern United States and northern Europe. Sulfur dioxide, a gas emitted by power plants and other industries, can be converted to acidic sulfate compounds within cloud droplets. In the atmosphere, it can also be directly converted to acidic particles, which can…
Recent increases in anthropogenic emissions of trace gases (for example, carbon dioxide, methane, and chloroflourocarbons) have resulted in concern over the so-called greenhouse effect. These trace gases allow energy in the form of sunlight to reach the earth's surface, but "trap" or absorb the infrared energy (heat) that is emitted by the earth. The heat absorbed by the atmos…
As discussed above, gas-phase pollutants such as sulfur dioxide can be converted into water-soluble particles in the atmosphere. Many of these particles can then act as nuclei of cloud droplet formation. Increasing the number of CCN in the atmosphere is expected to change the characteristics of clouds. For example, ships' emissions have been observed to cause an increase in the number of dr…
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User Comments
over 1 year ago
there are more types of precipitation according to lifting mechanism.
Convective ppt
Orographic PPt
Cyclone PPt
but i coud not find detail here
almost 4 years ago
Hi , i was so uplifted to know that there are more types of precipitation that i knew before and more than that what we should learn is how to make the best use from that and also to know that the importance and effect of global warming
almost 5 years ago
i think precipitation is agood thing in life to juss watch when it is raining or sumthing.