STORM2K

When I first started tracking hurricanes I found myself lost in a sea acronyms (pun intended). Anyway, I found this site which is extremely helpful:

http://www.bom.gov.au/bmrc/pubs/tcguide/ch9/ch9_1.htm

I was also baffled by the "ITCZ" and found this:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/tropics/itcz.htm

Finally, if you're wondering about the "SAL," you can find out more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saharan_Air_Layer



Now, can anyone help me get over my fear of physics so I can work up the guts to take some meteorology courses?

badashley wrote:Now, can anyone help me get over my fear of physics so I can work up the guts to take some meteorology courses?

Math is easy... conceptual is hard.

I took Physics last year and it wasn't too difficult.

How's that?

That's what I was afraid of!

Thanks for the links

wxmann_91 wrote:

badashley wrote:Now, can anyone help me get over my fear of physics so I can work up the guts to take some meteorology courses?

Math is easy... conceptual is hard.

I took Physics last year and it wasn't too difficult.

How's that?

im bad at math and physics....but im going into physics honors and pre calc this year if that helps

Besides the talk about the LLC (have definition down pat after Ernesto) and the ULL in reference to the current TS Flo - Unable to find what is the meaning of of ULL???? - Appreciate - Thank you much for the assistance -

Upper Level Low

wjs3 wrote:Upper Level Low

Thank you - Appreciate your reply and assistance again - If I had waited and kept on reading the tropical forum about TS Flo, I would have the answer to my own question -

No problem--I would have written more but was in a hurry. Though the name is kind of self explanatory, do you know what a ULL is?

wjs3 wrote:No problem--I would have written more but was in a hurry. Though the name is kind of self explanatory, do you know what a ULL is?

Please expand the definition - Reading the posts, I gather the ULL intergrates itself in the formation of a tropical system along with the LLC - sorry stilll learning and lurking - trying to get some idea on the formation of tropical storms and hurricanes - Thank you -

not quite.

A tropical cyclone (a well developed one) is low pressure (convergence--air coming together)) at the surface, combined with high pressure (divergence--air spreading apart) aloft.

A ULL is low pressure aloft (just the opposite). Think of it as a pocket of cold air aloft. This cold air, simplifying the explanation a great deal, leads to an area where air tend to converge at the upper levels of the troposphere...

This leads to a couple of things...first is that the cold air aloft can make the atmosphere more unstable...more prone to convection. If that happens and the convection can sustain itself, then in certain circumstances--and these are pretty rare, but they happen,--a ULL can transform itself into a surface low, and, eventually even a tropical cyclone.

Thinking more generally about it, though...a ULL (like any low pressure) is an area of convergence (air wants to go form high pressure to low pressure, so in a ULL, air at high level is heading toward the ULL). Convergence, aloft, in a ULL, tends to make the air column heavier (more and more air is piling into the column from above), and pressures at the surface, therefore, tend to be high. This is just the opposite of what you need--low pressure at the surface--for a TC.

ULLs can also be nasty because of the shear they impart to tropical cyclones--or not. It's a funny thing...get a ULL close enough to a TC and it shears the TC. Get it far enough away, and it can actually enhance outflow and make a TC stronger. You could write a book about it really.

Hope this helps.