CONDENSATION

AND CLOUD
FORMATION
Formation of Clou
Clouds and How
They Form

Clouds are made of water droplets or ice

crystals that are so small and light they are able to
stay in the air. But how does the water and ice that
makes up clouds get into the sky? And why do
different types of clouds form?
Water Vapor Evaporates
into the Air
■ The water or ice that make up clouds
travels into the sky within air as water
vapor, the gas form of water. Water
vapor gets into air mainly
by evaporation 
■ some of the liquid water from the ocean,
lakes, and rivers turns into water vapor
and travels in the air. When air rises in
the atmosphere it gets cooler and is
under less pressure. When air cools, it’s
not able to hold all of the water vapor it
once was. Air also can’t hold as much
water when air pressure drops. The
vapor becomes small water droplets or
Water Vapor Condenses to Form a
Cloud
■ It’s easier for water vapor to condense into water droplets
when it has a particle to condense upon. These particles,
such as dust and pollen, are called condensation nuclei.
Eventually, enough water vapor condenses upon pieces of
dust, pollen or other condensation nuclei to form a cloud.
As air rises it cools
and decreases
pressure,
spreading out.
Clouds form when
the air cools below
the dewpoint, and
the air can not
hold as much
water vapor.
Air Compression and Expansion

 When air is compressed, the motion of gas molecules

increases and the air temperature rises. The opposite happens
when air is allowed to escape. The air expands and cools. The
expanding air pushes on the surrounding air and cools by an
amount equal to the energy used up.
Adiabatic Temperature Changes

■ Adiabatic
temperature
changes occur
when air is
compressed or
expands
■ When it expands,
air cools
■ When it is
compressed, air
warms
■ In the atmosphere,
rising air changes
temperature at
known rates
Dry Adiabatic Rate
As long as the air in the parcel is unsaturated (the relative
humidity is less than 100 percent), the rate of adiabatic
cooling or warming remains constant and is about 10°C for
every 1000 meters of change in elevation, or about 5.5°F for
every 1000 feet. Since this rate of cooling or warming only
applies to unsaturated air, it is called the dry adiabatic
rate.
WET Adiabatic Rate
As the rising air cools, its relative humidity increases as the air
temperature approaches the dew-point temperature. If the air
cools to its dew-point temperature, the relative humidity
becomes 100 percent. Further lifting results in condensation, a
cloud forms, and latent heat is released into the rising air.
Because the heat added during condensation offsets some of
the cooling due to expansion, the air no longer cools at the dry
adiabatic rate but at a lesser rate called the moist adiabatic
rate.
 WORLD
CLIMATE AND
GLOBAL
CLIMATE
CHANGES
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
WEATHER AND CLIMATE
What’s the difference between weather and climate?

WEATHER
■ refers to the state of the
atmosphere at a given time and
place.
■ Changes in the weather are
frequent and sometimes
seemingly erratic.

CLIMATE
■ is a description of aggregate
weather conditions based on
observations over many
decades.
■ often defined simply as
“average weather,”
CLIMATE CHANGE
and
GLOBAL WARMING
 CLIMATE
CHANGE
Climate change is a change in the pattern of weather, and
related changes in oceans, land surfaces and ice sheets,
occurring over time scales of decades or longer
 Climate is affected by many
factors
ABIOTIC FACTORS BIOTIC
■Latitude FACTORS
■Altitude ■ Transportation
■Ocean Currents ■ Respiration
■Topography Photosythesis
■Solar Radiation ■ Decompositio
■Evaporation n
■Orbital Variations ■ Digestion
■Volcanic Activity
 Greenhouse Gases are essential to
our climate

The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth's

surface
 Global
Warming

a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the

earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the
greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon
dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.
How is climate change affecting the economy
and society?
■ Not only is it a serious threat to the planet and to people,
climate change is also threatening the global economy.
This problem needs public-private sector collaboration to
change the way we produce goods to other methods that
guarantee and drive the development of sustainable
economic growth.
Climate change is one of the biggest
threats to economic stability.
CLIMATE SYSTEM
 CLIMATE
SYSTEM

To understand fully and to predict changes in the atmospheric

component of the climate system, one must understand the
sun, oceans, ice sheets, solid earth, and all forms of life.
 CLIMATE
SYSTEM
Atmosphere
■ refers to the gases surrounding a star or planetary body held
in place by gravity. 

Geosphere
■ is considered that portion of the Earth system that includes
the Earth's interior, rocks and minerals, landforms and the
processes that shape the Earth's surface. 
Hydrosphere
■ includes water that is on the surface of the planet,
underground, and in the air.

Biosphere
■ the area of the planet where organisms live, including the
ground and the air. 
Cyrosphere
■ refers to the snow and ice that exists on the Earth’s surface
How Is Climate Change Detected?
■ High-technology and precision instrumentation
are now available to study the composition and
dynamics of the atmosphere.
■ But such tools are recent inventions and
therefore have been providing data for only a
short time span. To understand fully the behavior
of the atmosphere and to anticipate future
climate change, we must somehow discover how
climate has changed over broad expanses of
time.
■ Scientists examine data from natural recorders
of climate variability, such as seafloor
sediments, glacial ice, fossil pollen, and tree-
growth rings, as well as from historical
documents.
■ Scientists who study this proxy data are called
 Seafloor Sediment—A Storehouse of
Climate Data
■ Seafloor sediments are useful recorders of
worldwide climate change since the numbers and types of
organisms living near the sea surface change with
the climate. 18O (16 protons, but 18 neutrons). But the
lighter isotope 16O evapora
■ The amount and types of organic debris in the sediments
can help us determine the types of plants that grew nearby,
which gives us another insight into the local climate of
the past.tes more readily from the ocean.
 Seafloor Sediment—A Storehouse of
Climate
■ Organisms recording Data
climate data become part of
the sedimentary record
■ Records of temperature changes revealed in
sediment cores from ocean floor

The seafloor represents a huge Scientists examine a sediment

reservoir of data relating to core aboard the JOIDES
global environmental Resolution, the drilling ship of
change. the Ocean Drilling Program.
 Oxygen Isotope Analysis

■ A method of
determining
patterns of climatic
change over long
periods using the
ratio of the
stable oxygen
isotopes 18O to 16O
as an indicator of
the amount of water
locked up in ice‐
sheets and thus of
global temperature.
 Oxygen Isotope Analysis

This graph showing temperature variations over the past 40,000 years is derived
from oxygen isotope analysis of ice cores recovered from the Greenland ice sheet.
(After U.S. Geological Survey
 Climate Change Recorded in Glacial
Ice
■ Ice cores are an indispensable source of data for
reconstructing past climates
■ Scientists collect samples with a drilling rig, like a
small version of an oil drill. A hollow shaft follows
the drill head into the ice, and an ice core is
extracted.
■ The ice provides a detailed record of changing air
temperatures and snowfall. Air bubbles trapped in
the ice record variations in atmospheric
composition. Changes in carbon dioxide and
methane are linked to fluctuating temperatures.
■ The cores also include atmospheric fallout such
as windblown dust, volcanic ash, pollen, and
modern-day pollution.
Climate Change Recorded in Glacial
Ice

The National Ice Core Laboratory is a physical plant for storing and studying
cores
of ice taken from glaciers around the world. These cores represent a long-
term record of material deposited from the atmosphere. The lab provides
scientists the capability to conduct examinations of ice cores, and it
preserves the integrity of these samples in a repository for the study of
global climate change and past environmental conditions. (Photo by
USGS/National Ice Core Laboratory)
Tree Rings—Archives of Environmental
History

■ The characteristics of the rings inside a

tree can tell scientists how old a tree is
and what the weather conditions were like
during each year of that tree’s life. Very
old trees can offer clues about what the
climate in an area was like long before
measurements were recorded.
■ Because trees are sensitive to local
climate conditions, such as rain and
temperature, they give scientists some
information about that area’s local climate
in the past. 
Tree Rings—Archives of Environmental
History

 The light-colored
rings represent
wood that grew in
the spring and early
summer, while the
dark rings represent
wood that grew in
the late summer
and fall. One light
ring plus one dark
ring equals one
year of the tree’s
life.

The color and width of tree rings can provide

snapshots of past climate conditions.
Prepared by:

Christine Rica C. Sernias

BSCE 2A
References:
■ Ahrens - Essentials of Meteorology - An Invitation to
the Atmosphere - Third Edition
■ Earth_An_Introduction_to_Physical_Geology by
Tarbuck