Links for Synoptics Topics

1. Recognize warm, cold, and occluded fronts on weather maps.  wikipedia , vsc ( including air masses)  , ww2010 ,
   
2. Anticipate the weather changes associated with passage of each type of front. wikipedia warm, cold, occluded, stationary ,
   
3. Synthesize you knowledge of clouds and fronts to be able to look in the sky and make a weather forecast based on the clouds that you see.  (see links to item 2 above) , wikihow ,
   
4. Using vertical cross sections, contrast warm and cold occlusions.  cold , warm ,
   
5. Synthesize your knowledge of fronts (including dry lines and gust fronts) with your knowledge of thunderstorm triggering to explain why some fronts are favored locations for thunderstorms.  wikipedia dry line , gust front , (see our textbook p525 for triggering of Tstorms by fronts) ,
   

1. Draw diagrams showing how fronts change around an evolving cyclone.  nws , fiu , ww2010 ,
   
2. Catalog favored cyclogenesis regions, and explain why they are favored.  wiki , fiu ,
   
3. Explain why cyclones can intensify in spite counteracting effect of  boundary-layer winds. ww2010 ,
   
4. Diagnose cyclone location, movement, and evolutionary stage from satellite imagery.  wxonline , noaa , eumetrain , meted ,
   
5. Recognize cyclones in upper-level isobaric charts as well as surface charts.  UWisc ,
   
6. Form a picture in your mind of the 3-D structure of extratropical cyclones, especially of the tilting of the low center with height.  UWisc , wiki ,
   
7. Anticipate weather hazards associated with cyclone passage.  wiki , uiuc ,
   

1. Describe how lee cyclogenesis works, and explain why it is so important to weather in N. America. eumetrain , fiu ,
2. Explain the processes that can increase the vorticity  of a midlatitude cyclone.(i.e., spin up)  ucsb ,
   
3. Justify why divergence aloft is necessary for cyclogenesis.  ww2010 ,
   
4. Demonstrate how jet-stream curvature and jet-streak characteristics can create the needed divergence aloft.  ncsu , lukem ,
   
5. Qualitatively interpret the terms in the net pressure tendency equation.  sjsu , ams , sfsu , lsc ,
   

1. Synthesize all aspects of the general circulation, air masses, fronts, midlatitude cyclones to explain why we get the weather we do.  (see p472 of our textbook) ,
   
2. Describe west-coast weather phenomena including: pre-frontal jets, the pineapple express, outflow & gap winds, the cyclone graveyard, orographic precipitation, instant occlusions upon landfall, mountain waves, polar lows, etc.
   
3. Access web-based weather, satellite, radar, and numerical weather forecast info on current and future weather.  ubc , uwash ,
   
4. Describe and explain what drives these local winds: anabatic wind, katabatic wind, mountain & valley winds, sea breeze, gap winds, mountain waves, Bora, Foehn (Chinook) winds.  wiki katabatic , anabatic ,
   

http://www.eos.ubc.ca/courses/atsc201
Copyright © 2013 by Roland Stull