Simulations

In this chapter, you studied the evaporation of water from the earth's surface (primarily its oceans) into the atmosphere and then its condensation or deposition within the atmosphere as cloud particles-many of which have nuclei of sea salt. In the process, you learned how to solve a variety of problems relating temperature, relative humidity, dew point, wet-bulb temperature, and mixing ratio. You saw that relative humidity is a measure of how much water exists in vapor form compared to the equilibrium or saturation value. You saw that relative humidity is highly sensitive to temperature changes. You also considered the geographic and temporal variations of humidity, both absolute and relative, and some ways humidity affects the human body.

The chapter continued with a discussion of condensation as dew and frost and (more important for our purposes) in the free atmosphere, onto condensation and freezing nuclei. Such condensation and deposition are the genesis of cloud particles. You learned that a cloud droplet's diameter and the amount of impurity within its water mass can influence the efficacy with which the water vapor condenses onto the drop, hence its rate of growth. Finally, you explored the formation of frozen cloud particles and the process of supercooling, a common atmospheric phenomenon.

Simulation 1 (3078.0K)