ARSC/GEOL 2110
Physical Science of the Earth System
Convection in the Atmosphere & Ocean
Fall 2001

LAB REPORT: Convection in the Atmosphere and Ocean Due Thursday, December 6.

Useful resources: Blue Planet Ch. 11, esp. pp. 252-254; Ch. 12, esp. 280-286; Ch. 13, esp. 299-302. Observations and discussion from "demo" labs in red lab manual (Convection and Ocean and Atmosphere Circulation: Laboratory Insight).

1. Explain the following observations about the weather in certain places on Earth. Your explanations should take into account the processes of radiation, convection, condensation and evaporation.

a) Equatorial tropical regions tend to be warm and have low atmospheric pressure and lots of clouds.
b) Polar regions are cold and dry and tend to have high atmospheric pressures.
c) At the beach, there tend to be sea (on-shore) winds during the day and land (off-shore) winds at night.
d) On sunny summer days in Colorado, a line of clouds tends to form right above the Continental Divide. (This is why you should hike early in the day... by afternoon the risk of thunderstorms and lightning is greatly increased!)

2. On what part of the Earth would you expect the oceans to be most affected by the Sun? Explain your reasoning.

3. On what part(s) of the Earth would you expect the oceans to be saltiest? Explain your reasoning.

4. Study Figure 11.13 on p. 253 in Blue Planet. Explain as much of the figure as you can, based on what you know so far.