9781878220240
Distributed for American Meteorological Society
The Weather, Illustrated
Graphics from The AMS Weather Book
North America has some of the most varied and dynamic weather on the planet. Every year, the Gulf Coast is battered by hurricanes, the Great Plains are ravaged by tornados, the Midwest is pummeled by blizzards, and the temperature in the Southwest reaches a sweltering 120 degrees. Extreme weather can be a matter of life and death, but even when it is pleasant—72 degrees and sunny—weather is still central to the lives of all Americans. Yet few of us really understand the science behind weather.
This DVD companion to The AMS Weather Book—the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to our weather and our atmosphere—provides over one hundred graphic illustrations in full color and exceptional detail that serve to illuminate and explain the full host of atmospheric phenomena, from the Northern Lights and lake effect snow to the jet stream and ocean currents. All of the concepts illustrated on this DVD relate to people’s every day lives and can be used in the classroom to complement the book, or as educational tools in their own right.
Reviews
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
A gallery of clouds
How the atmosphere bends light
How water drops make rainbows
Ice crystals create halos
Ice crystals create sun pillars
Satellites give the big picture
Why the sky is blue and sunrise and sunset are red
Chapter 2: Earth’s Energy
Electromagnetic waves
Earth’s energy budget
How heat travels
Longer days, less heat
Earth’s moving continents
Night and day on an equinox
Night and day on the summer solstice
Night and day on the winter solstice
Space Weather
The Arctic Ocean halocline
How Earth’s tilt causes the seasons
Chapter 3: Wind and Currents
Fierce winds rip apart houses
How a mercury barometer works
How Earth’s surface affects winds
How wind shear causes turbulence
A one, two, three of jet streams
Gabled roof and hip roof
The Coriolis force
Waves
What makes the wind blow
Wind around high pressure
Wind around low pressure
Wind between high and low pressure
Chapter 4: Water
A California barrier jet
A water molecule
A watery world
An ice crystal
As water cools
How clouds create rain and snow
How evaporation saturates air
Water’s phase changes
Stable air
Unstable air
Why rising air cools
Chapter 5: Global Patterns
A conveyor belt storm model
A teacher at sea
Atmospheric rivers and floods
Formation of polar air masses
Global atmospheric and ocean circulation
La Niña and El Niño
Middle latitude storms
Oceanic heat transport
Oscillations and the weather
Semipermanent pressure areas
Some typical extratropical storm tracks
Storm energy
Europe’s warm winters
Waves in upper-atmospheric winds
Chapter 6: Earth Observers
A gallery of research airplanes
Automated weather observations
Doppler weather radar
Greenland
Measurements of cloud cover
Measuring the oceans’ depths
Passive microwave energy
Polarized weather radar
Satellite observations
Tracking weather in Antarctica
West Antarctic Ice Sheet camp
Chapter 7: Weather Forecasting
Aircraft icing
Blizzard of 1888 snowfall
Eclipse forecast for 2017
Forecast maps
Looking far ahead
Plenty of warning
Spaghetti plots
Storm warning flags
Tar-Pamlico river basin
Weather forecasts from start to finish
Chapter 8: Thunderstorms and Tornadoes
Hailstorms
Lightning detection
Lightning
Multicell cluster thunderstorms
Safe rooms
Supercells and tornadoes
The lifecycle of thunderstorms
Tornado ingredients
Tornadoes and overpasses
Wet and dry microbursts
Chapter 9: Mesoscale Weather
Atmospheric gravity waves
Bow echoes
Lake-effect snow
Mesoscale convective complex
The Independence Day derecho of 1977
The thermal belt and wildfire
Towering clouds and quirky winds
Winds with names
Winter warm front weather
Chapter 10: Tropical Cyclones
Hurricane eyewall replacement
Hurricane forecast maps
Hurricanes high and low
Ingredients needed for a hurricane
Inside a hurricane
Measuring hurricane winds
Steering hurricanes
Storm surge
Storms are giant whirlwinds
Tropical cyclone basins
Chapter 11: Under the Radar
Air measurements from above and below
Air pollution
Clear above, murky below
Dangerous tiny particles
The Air Quality Index
The heat index
The UV index and sunburn danger
Wind chill chart
Chapter 12: Weather and Climate Threats
Antarctic sea ice
Arctic Ocean sea ice losses
Inside ice sheets
Natural and human drivers of Earth’s climate
Ozone and the stratosphere
Productive polar oceans
The carbon cycle
Tundra’s active layer
Warming and ice sheets
A gallery of clouds
How the atmosphere bends light
How water drops make rainbows
Ice crystals create halos
Ice crystals create sun pillars
Satellites give the big picture
Why the sky is blue and sunrise and sunset are red
Chapter 2: Earth’s Energy
Electromagnetic waves
Earth’s energy budget
How heat travels
Longer days, less heat
Earth’s moving continents
Night and day on an equinox
Night and day on the summer solstice
Night and day on the winter solstice
Space Weather
The Arctic Ocean halocline
How Earth’s tilt causes the seasons
Chapter 3: Wind and Currents
Fierce winds rip apart houses
How a mercury barometer works
How Earth’s surface affects winds
How wind shear causes turbulence
A one, two, three of jet streams
Gabled roof and hip roof
The Coriolis force
Waves
What makes the wind blow
Wind around high pressure
Wind around low pressure
Wind between high and low pressure
Chapter 4: Water
A California barrier jet
A water molecule
A watery world
An ice crystal
As water cools
How clouds create rain and snow
How evaporation saturates air
Water’s phase changes
Stable air
Unstable air
Why rising air cools
Chapter 5: Global Patterns
A conveyor belt storm model
A teacher at sea
Atmospheric rivers and floods
Formation of polar air masses
Global atmospheric and ocean circulation
La Niña and El Niño
Middle latitude storms
Oceanic heat transport
Oscillations and the weather
Semipermanent pressure areas
Some typical extratropical storm tracks
Storm energy
Europe’s warm winters
Waves in upper-atmospheric winds
Chapter 6: Earth Observers
A gallery of research airplanes
Automated weather observations
Doppler weather radar
Greenland
Measurements of cloud cover
Measuring the oceans’ depths
Passive microwave energy
Polarized weather radar
Satellite observations
Tracking weather in Antarctica
West Antarctic Ice Sheet camp
Chapter 7: Weather Forecasting
Aircraft icing
Blizzard of 1888 snowfall
Eclipse forecast for 2017
Forecast maps
Looking far ahead
Plenty of warning
Spaghetti plots
Storm warning flags
Tar-Pamlico river basin
Weather forecasts from start to finish
Chapter 8: Thunderstorms and Tornadoes
Hailstorms
Lightning detection
Lightning
Multicell cluster thunderstorms
Safe rooms
Supercells and tornadoes
The lifecycle of thunderstorms
Tornado ingredients
Tornadoes and overpasses
Wet and dry microbursts
Chapter 9: Mesoscale Weather
Atmospheric gravity waves
Bow echoes
Lake-effect snow
Mesoscale convective complex
The Independence Day derecho of 1977
The thermal belt and wildfire
Towering clouds and quirky winds
Winds with names
Winter warm front weather
Chapter 10: Tropical Cyclones
Hurricane eyewall replacement
Hurricane forecast maps
Hurricanes high and low
Ingredients needed for a hurricane
Inside a hurricane
Measuring hurricane winds
Steering hurricanes
Storm surge
Storms are giant whirlwinds
Tropical cyclone basins
Chapter 11: Under the Radar
Air measurements from above and below
Air pollution
Clear above, murky below
Dangerous tiny particles
The Air Quality Index
The heat index
The UV index and sunburn danger
Wind chill chart
Chapter 12: Weather and Climate Threats
Antarctic sea ice
Arctic Ocean sea ice losses
Inside ice sheets
Natural and human drivers of Earth’s climate
Ozone and the stratosphere
Productive polar oceans
The carbon cycle
Tundra’s active layer
Warming and ice sheets