Dr. Md.
Sabbir Mostafa Khan
[email protected] Lecture Note – 2
Precipitation (Background)
Water Vapor
Atmospheric water mostly exists as a gas, or vapor, but briefly and locally it becomes a
liquid in rainfall and in water droplets in clouds, or it becomes a solid in snowfall, in hail, or
in ice crystals in clouds.
Specific humidity (qv)
Specific humidity is defined as the mass of water vapor per unit mass of moist air. As mass
per unit volume equals density, therefore specific humidity is also defined as the ratio of
density of water vapor to density of moist air.
Mathematically,
Where,
ρv = Density of water vapor
ρa = Density of moist air
Vapor pressure
Vapor pressure is the partial pressure of water vapor in the atmosphere.
Mathematically,
Where,
e = Vapor pressure of water vapor (Pascal)
ρv = Density of water vapor (kg/m3)
Rv = Gas constant for water vapor (J/kg-K)
T = Absolute temperature (K)
Saturation vapor pressure (es)
For a given air temperature, there is a maximum moisture content the air can hold; the
corresponding vapor pressure is called the saturation vapor pressure.
Mathematically, [Raudkivi, 1979]
Where,
es = Saturation vapor pressure (Pascal)
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Dr. Md. Sabbir Mostafa Khan
[email protected]
T = Given air temperature (oC)
Relative humidity (Rh)
It is the ratio of actual vapor pressure to its saturation value at a given air temperature.
Mathematically,
Dew-point temperature (Td)
The temperature at which air would just become saturated at a given specific humidity is its
dew-point temperature.
Precipitation
Precipitation denotes all forms of water that reach the earth from the atmosphere.
Formation of precipitation
▪Lifting of air mass in the atmosphere so that it cools and some of its moisture condenses.
There are three main mechanisms of air mass lifting:
A. Frontal lifting: Lifting of warm air on one side of a frontal surface over colder,
denser air on the other side.
B. Orographic lifting: Air mass rises to pass over a mountain range.
C. Convective lifting: Rising of warmer, lighter air in colder, denser surroundings.
▪Condensation requires a seed called condensation nuclei on which the droplets form.
Condensation nuclei (0.1 to 10 μm) usually consist of products of combustion, oxides of
nitrogen and salt particles.
▪The tiny droplets grow by condensation and impact with their neighbors as they are
carried by turbulent air motion, until they become large enough so that the force of
gravity overcomes that of friction.
▪As they begin to fall, further increase in size occurs as the hit other droplets in the fall
path.
▪However, as the drop falls, water evaporates from its surface and the drop size diminishes,
so the drop may be reduced to the size of an aerosol and be carried upwards in the cloud
through turbulent action.
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Dr. Md. Sabbir Mostafa Khan
[email protected]
* Aerosol: Remains airborne indefinitely except for precipitation. (size < 3 μm).
▪The cycle of condensation, falling, evaporation, and rising occurs on average about 10
times before the drop reaches a critical size of about 0.1 mm, which is large enough to fall
through the bottom of the cloud.
▪Up to 1 mm in diameter, the droplets remain spherical in shape, but beyond this size they
begin to flatten out on the bottom until they are no longer stable falling through the air
and break up into small raindrops and droplets. Normal raindrops falling through the
cloud base are 0.1 to 3 mm in diameter.
Cloud seeding
It is a process of artificially nucleating clouds to induce precipitation. Silver iodide is a
common nucleating agent and is spread from aircraft in which a silver iodide solution is
evaporated with a propane flame to produce particles.
Forms of Precipitation
Rain: Consists of liquid water drops mostly larger than 0.5 mm in diameter. On the basis of
intensity, rainfall is classified as,
Light: Trace to 2.5 mm/h
Moderate: >2.5 mm/h to 7.6 mm/h
Heavy: >7.6 mm/h
Snow: Snow consists of ice crystals. The average density is 0.1 gm/cm 3.
Drizzle: (Sometimes called mist) consists of tiny liquid water droplets, usually with
diameters between 0.1 and 0.5 mm. Drizzle usually falls from low stratus and rarely
exceeds 1 mm/hr.
Glaze: When rain or drizzle comes in contact with cold ground at around 0 oC, the water
drops freeze to form an ice coating called glaze. Sp. gr. may be as high as 0.8 to 0.9.
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Dr. Md. Sabbir Mostafa Khan
[email protected]
Sleet: when rain falls through air at sub-freezing temperature, the frozen rain drops are
called sleet.
Rime: Formed by rapid freezing of super-cooled water drops impinging on exposed
objects. Sp. gr. may be as low as 0.2 to 0.3.
Hail: It is a showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or lumps of ice of size
more than 8 mm.
