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Senior at The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Interests: Space Weather, Fire Weather, Lightning
SCEP Student at the SLC NWS WFO
My Home Page
The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught (NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day)
There are a few important things to make a good article on Wikipedia. The first is to
remember what the goals specified by the WikiProject are. The articles have to fulfill
those goals. A second item is that the article must go through peer reviews. Without
these reviews, we would have so many opinions and mistakes. So please, to whoever may
read this, HAVE YOUR PEERS REVIEW YOUR PAGE!
As for the content of the page, that is also very important. All the information in the
article must be relevant to the topic. It is extremely hard to read a paper that has
lots of side-hand comments that don't make any sense. If such comments are necessary,
there should be a link to another page that explains more on that topic. But
even if all the information is useful, it means nothing if the thoughts aren't
organized. Wikipedia has a basic organization to follow to begin. There must be
a Lede section (describing briefly what the subject is, e.g. What is a cold front?).
Next is the Main body written in a clear and concise manner, followed by a "See
Also" section, directing the reader to other articles related to the topic at hand.
Another extremely important section is References. Not only does this avoid plagerism,
but it shows the reader where he/she can go to read more. Finally, include any
external links that might be useful.
I am currently planning on writing an article (or adding to an article) regarding lightning. I decided to do this because, as I stated at the top of this page, I am interested in Space Weather and Fire Weather. I figured it would be good to study something I am interested in so that, if that is the path I choose for a career, I will have a nice start. Since Space Weather is not mesoscale, that leaves me to work with either Fire Weather or lightning. I decided that, since I started a project at one time on it, lightning would be a great option.
Current proposition on article concerning Roll Clouds
I had planned to write an article on lightning, but the subject has already been covered thoroughly, and I don't have any useful information at the time to add to it. But I found that the current Wikipedia article on a Roll Cloud only has a brief introduction, or lede section. I have written the following on the Formation of a Roll Cloud:
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The first step in the formation of a Roll Cloud is the formation of a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS). An ideal MCS is formed with wind shear in the lower levels of the atmosphere and enough heating of the air to allow the air to rise past the level of free convection. If both of these conditions are present, then convection can occur freely, and the air gets pushed up higher into the atmosphere. The other important ingredient for clouds is, of course, water. At a certain height, the water vapor in the air will condense and fall as precipitation. This process cools the air and forms a downdraft, and possibly even a microburst.
Once the downdraft reaches the ground, the cold air spreads across the surface, forming a cold pool. The leading edge of this cold pool is often called a gust front because of the increased winds after the edge passes. This gust front is often marked by dust clouds, caused by the increased wind. As the cold pool spreads, the gust front pushes the air up even more, causing more convection, which often produces a squall line.
As the squall line progresses, the water in the rising air condenses to create a long cloud along the gust front. This entire process creates a horizontal rotation in the front of the system. As the clouds develop along this rotation, it forms in a more round, or rolling form, producing what we have called a Roll Cloud.
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This article still needs references and pictures, but as I research more, and receive critiques, I will expand this article, preparing it for the Roll Cloud page. Possible additions are:
- a figure on formation of an MCS (including a cold pool and gust front)
- another figure showing the horizontal rotation (vorticity) of the air around an MCS
- a loop of the storm in SLC on August 1, 2006, which has a very well-defined roll cloud in it