Notesale: Turn your study into money

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FLYING:
VFR =Visual Flight Rules = fly by looking out window; need good visibility and stay out of clouds | IFR = Instrument Flight Rules: Navigate w/ GPS, instruments, air traffic control (ATC), requires a filed flight plan | billow (K-H Wave) = indicate CAT and wind shear,
look like waves |Castellanus= castle turret like clouds, these & KH wave are a sign of unstable air |Rotor Clouds= Indicate severe turbulence at low altitudes due to mountain waves (break wings, danger high) | Lenticular clouds= vertical wave wind oscillation &
mountain wake turbulence, bumpy ride for commercial aircrafts | Banner cloud= Form on downwind side of mountain peak
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| Pyrocumlus – form over forest fires and
volcanoes| Pileus – fast growing cumulus, harmless
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Above 62,000 ft / 19km|
Density(ρ) = mass/Volume | Pressure altitude= altitude measured from pressure alone | Density altitude= altitude that the aircraft “feels” | Crosswinds = winds coming from sides | Headwinds = winds coming directly towards you | Tailwinds = winds directly
behind you | Wind Components: calculated by components of headwind/crosswinds | Wind Shear= A change of wind speed/direction with altitude | Sea breeze= colder air blowing onshore from the sea, during the day, Land breeze= night| Anabatic winds=
warm air moving up mountain slopes warmed by the sun
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| Mountain wave= air oscillating up and down after it hits mountain
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variation of air pressure (P), temperature
(T), and density (ρ) with altitude (see the spheres chart on back page, all of our weather happens in the troposphere) | CAPE index= thunderstorm index, the higher cape the more intense storm, 1750 is an ordinary thunderstorm and max thunderstorm is at 2850 |
K index= rain intensity in thunderstorm 20-40 | Turbulence= the random gusty fluctuations (vertical and horizontal) of wind | Types of turbulence: Convective/free convection/thermal turbulence= due to buoyancy, warm air rising and cold air sinking
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If the cold air retreats, it is a warm front
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| Occluded front= if a
cold front catches up and merges with a warm front
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| Isotherms are closer together in a warm and cold front and a close in an occluded front (but not as close/strong) than they normally are | Dry line= boundary between dry and humid air
at roughly the same temperature
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Thunderstorms = Convective clouds, 3 types; basic, mesoscale convective systems and supercells | Thunderstorm Stages = 1) Cumulus: Updrafts, no
downdrafts
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No anvil 2) Mature: Both up and downdrafts
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Anvil
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Raining itself out, leaving ice crystals in the middle and upper parts of the cloud
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Downburst winds can be harmful to structures and they create outflow winds which could result in arc clouds or haboobs (sand storms)| Graupel= hail that has a smaller diameter of 0
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(0 = pea, 6 = egg, 10 = melon) | Tornados are violently rotating columns of air between thunderstorm clouds and ground, most powerful one is supercell, measured
on the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF) from 0 to 5 | TAF Terminal Aerodrome forecasts = future wind forecasts | SPECI as special report if METAR is not accurate to sudden weather change | Warm occlusion has cold coming close to warm, but warm still dominant
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A thunderstorm results when the air mixes | Static stability:
see image of equation on back side, corresponds to the calculated S value: Negative = statically unstable--air becomes turbulent, Zero = statically neutral—air is neutral (not turbulent nor non-turbulent), Positive = statically stable—air becomes non-turbulent|
Low Pressure System Direction - Clockwise in southern hemisphere and Counter-clockwise in northern hemisphere
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SKIING:
Pressure level map: black contours show lines of constant temperature, new line every Δ2°C
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5kPa
= 4000m | NWP (Numerical Weather Prediction) is the analytical map that becomes the forecast map
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RH under 50% then no clouds, RH =70% means we start seeing cloud formations, RH = 90% then overcast cloud cover, if greater then may have little to no
visibility!| If there is an unbroken “overcast” cloud layer under you then it is an undercast
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| Green on a kPa map indicates humidity and lots of clouds | Isobars show various pressure variations, when close together, suggest a cold/warm front incoming or occluded front | Low pressure troughs are marked with dashed lines, High
pressure troughs with squiggly lines | High pressure is highest point (ridges) when isobars are increasing in pressure and low pressure is lowest point (troughs) when they are decreasing in pressure | Wind converges towards the center of the low, in northern
hemisphere the Coriolis effect turns these winds to the right and so the air turns counter clockwise around a cyclone, opposite to a high pressure system | High pressure/anticyclone is when pressure is higher than surrounding regions, typically better more sunny
less wind, more safe for skiing, lack of precipitation weather
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| Frontal zone= relative strong
horizontal temperature gradient | Isobars are for pressure shown as full lines, Isotherms are for temperature shown as dashed lines | Frontal zone Indication are wind shift, pressure trough and higher relative humidity| In BC winds in front of cold front winds
typically come from south-easterly to south and winds after a cold front typically come from north/north-westerly or south-westerly | Cold fronts indicate the boundary between relatively warmer and colder air masses, where the cold air is advancing | Long cold
fronts and cold temperatures can lead to Hypothermia and frostbite | Wind chill is not the actual temp but rather the apparent temp/how cold it feels due to combined effect of wind and temp | As cold fronts approach then they can mix with warm fronts and
create cumulonimbus with some precipitation cloud | Blowing snow, Heavy snowfall, clouds and fog cause less visibility (horizontal and vertical) | Convective showers are possible because air mass is typically unstable | Warm front = boundary between warm
and cold air masses and the warm front is advancing | In the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes, the winds ahead of a warm front typically come from an easterly direction
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e
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This cycle happens during high-pressure system | As shallow layer of cold air moves downslope, it converges into small valleys, as these valleys become larger and eventually becomes a valley cold pool of air | Adiabatic lapse rate= change of temp with altitude |
If a temp inversion traps moisture then it can create a valley cloud (when moisture condenses within the air in a valley) and rising air doesn’t travel higher, thus it’s a Capping Inversion | Inversions occur due to: subsidence (sinking motion) due to high pressure,
and radiative cooling of the ground
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In stable conditions, this lapse rate is very slow and so it’s negligible, likewise during a frontal passage there’s a very stable temperature profile and
no vertical interpolation is needed
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Cannot easily
move up over mountains due to density | Gap winds usually occur when the large scale prevailing wind direction is perpendicular (90 degrees) to the mountain range (frequent in BC)
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| Rain-snow line is elevation at where the transition from rain to snow happens (water freezes), this line is 200-300m below
the freezing level on a mountain
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The water vapour is moving quickly, and crystal growth happens quickly
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Rounded crystals/rounds are produced when temperature gradients are weak, water vapour moves slowly, and crystal growth happens slowly rounding occurs when the vertical temperature gradient within the snowpack is less than 1°C per 10 cm depth/10°C per
metre
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g
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g
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It is produced by deposition onto the snow surface when the air temperature falls below the frostpoint temperature
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Hoar is very feathery and delicate
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Once it's buried by
subsequent snowfall, however, the surface hoar acts as a weak layer within the snowpack
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This can cause an avalanche
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| Avalanche= mass of snow that moves rapidly down the side of a mountain, types [SEE TYPES
CHART ON BACK]= loose-snow/sluff made up of surface and/or near-surface snow that is not well-bonded
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(Vshape)
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They’ll knock a person off their feet and carry them downhill
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Terrain traps are typically small
gullies
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Wet sluff avalanches are often caused by significant snowmelt from strong solar radiation, or by significant rainfall on the snowpack
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| A slab
avalanche occurs when a layer somewhere beneath the surface layer fails, and the cohesive layer(s) above it fracture into a block (or blocks) and slide downhill
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Since slab avalanches are
typically larger and sluff avalanches, they tend to be more destructive and more likely to bury a person
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Slabs generally fall into two categories
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They remain hard and cohesive blocks as they slide
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Often, snow becomes bonded
well enough to form a soft slab after about two days on the ground
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The blocks also tend to break up more as they slide down the slope
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The slab release results from meltwater or rain percolating through the snowpack, and a pre-existing weak layer becomes wet enough that its bonds lose strength and fail
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(See
chart on back) stellar dendrites probably the most recognizable type of snow crystal, columns and needles, also common but not as easy to find
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capped columns, these are not as
common as dendrites, columns, and needles, diamond dust, the smallest snow crystals that glisten in the sun, usually found in extreme cold weather
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As temperature decreases below 0°C, snow crystal formation changes type three times
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As humidity increases, the snow crystals tend
to get bigger
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A good ski piste
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SAILING
The ocean is in constant motion
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The most common waves we see are created by wind
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g
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g
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| Factors that affect wave formation are: wind velocity, fetch (the distance over water that the wind can blow uninterrupted), duration (amount of time wind blows over that patch of
water) |Wind creates frictional drag --forces the wind to slow down
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| Waves move energy, not water | Wavelength= distance from one wave crest to another |
Wave train= a group of waves traveling in the same direction | Wind-generated winds - a result of wind disturbing the ocean’s surface and displacing water
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These waves can be metres to kilometers long
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g
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Wave Height and Period can give you a good idea of what kind of swell you will be seeing, “Swell of 6 ft at 15 seconds,” meaning the swell has a wave height of 6ft and a wave period of 15 seconds
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If you are on shore, there are two types of winds to consider: Onshore winds blow from the ocean onto the shore
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Offshore winds blow from the land out over the ocean
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| Rouge
waves= waves created by constructive interference, waves meet and grow double up (opposite of destructive interference) | Tsunamis are very long waves resulting from seismic events e
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earthquakes & landslides (wavelength can be +200km) | Waves may
become unstable when its steepness exceeds 1:7 (height:width) | Spilling breakers form over gentle slopes with long slow breakers and white water spilling over crest | Plunging breakers are a crest with a well-defined curl, falling forward with considerable
energy | Surging breakers= low amplitude, long wave period, slides rapidly up the beach with little foam | Coriolis effect= see pressure system direction definition, direction winds flow in southern/northern hemispheres | Intertropical convergence zone
(ITCZ)/doldrums region of heavy rain and thunderstorms, Horizontal winds are are often light to calm, making it difficult to sail at the ITCZ
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But
these winds get only as far as about 30° latitude before they are turned toward the east (but still at the top of the troposphere)
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Hemisphere, and to the left in the S
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The greater the difference in temperature, the stronger the winds
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Hurricane/tropical cyclone only happens in warm tropical air masses happen between Tropic of Cancer (23
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5o S), starts as tropical depression (37-63km/h) and
becomes tropical storm (64-118km/h) | Storm Surge= large amounts of water pushed against the shore as a hurricane approaches |Easterly waves cause many tropical storm | Sting jets= rare, warm & cold fronts never meet, it forms as strong winds fall to the
ground and become denser & faster | Squall line= a long chain of storms that form on or in front of a cold front | Waterspouts= a spiralling column of air and moisture, typically formed under cumulonimbus (looks like tornado) | Downburst= rapid descending of air
that hits surface and spreads out | Cyclonic systems= often open cells, anticyclonic = often closed cells | Land breeze= night, Cold air on land (high pressure) moves to warm air on sea (low) and mixes | Sea breeze= day, the sea’s less warm air (high) moves in
to warmer air form land (low) and creates wind onshore | Synoptic winds= larger scale regional winds, can influence local winds | Wind can get trapped on coast line due to inversion and physical barrier | Outflows(squamish winds) = a strong wind that is
produced when cold air in the interior develops into a mass of high pressure that rushes towards the warmer, low pressure air on the coast
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The leading edge of an outflow will typically bring clouds, rain, or even snow with it, followed by clear skies
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The pressure gradient
reverses, causing the air to rush from the coast inland to the area of lower pressure
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| Mesoscale cellular Convection occurs at boundary layer between
surface and troposphere, colder air from continents blows over warmer ocean air (cold-air advection)
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An adjacent cell does the same and the higher air spreads until they
meet
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This pattern of convergence and divergence creates a honeycomb pattern of convective clouds that are recognized as open or closed cells (see image on back page), Open cells are commonly
found in the tail end of cyclones, while closed cells are associated with anticyclones | Tide= movement of the oceans up and down due to gravitational pull of the moon and sun (strong tide=spring t
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) | Flood tide= incoming, ebb tide= outgoing | Low
Slack (vice versa): occurs at transition from ebbing tide to a flooding tide (lowest height) | Max current occur at midpoint between high and low tide | Tidal rapids= fast flowing current forced through narrow space | Types of fog= Advective (Sea fog = warm
humid air cools beyond its dew point and condenses), Radiation (formed over land as humid air cools and condenses), Frontal/Precipitation (warm front rises over cold front
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The light bends as it passes through the denser cold air, creating an inverted image below your line of site
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Superior is the opposite: a layer of warm air sits above your line of vision with a cool layer beneath it
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Light bends down towards the denser air, but because our eyes assume the light we see travels straight, the object we are seeing appears higher than it actually is
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Environment Canada Marine weather is forecasted on radio frequencies known as Continuous Marine Broadcast (CMB) | kPa = kilopascal, 10 mb = 10 hPa = 1 kPa|
A barometer measures air pressure, if dropping, it indicates low pressure system | Land is faster than sea to release its heat | Refraction: waves bending due to varying depth of water | RH above 80% = saturated | High slack = bold (unstressed) time after a plus
sign and low slack= bold time after a negative sign
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Chart
datum is typically the lowest average tide, below which the tide will rarely fall
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Convective/Cumuliform (Cu)

Layer/Stratiform (St)

stacks of cotton balls, updrafts

sheets/blankets

1knot = 2km/h

Warm Front
Cold Front

Diurnal Slope Flows

Venturi/Bernoulli Effect



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