Moisture, Clouds and Rainstorms

Take away ideas and understandings

• Convection is a from of heat transfer achieved in the atmosphere through the vertical motion of air parcels.

• Convection moves air parcels with their content (water vapor and droplets, small particles, other gases) and thus affects visibility, cloudiness, rainfall, and levels of pollution in the air.

• The process of convection is governed by basic physical laws: gravity and the conservation of energy, and by a fundamental relationship between three measures of the state of every gas: temperature, density, and pressure.

• Water, in all three phases, participates in and strongly affects the convection process, leading to the formation of clouds and rainfall.

• Water is a very important part of the climate system. In addition to its greenhouse properties, it also acts as a reservoir of heat.

• Water cycling through the climate system supports life and maintains a stable climate on Earth.

Link to detailed lecture notes