Admin What is the meaning of Anabatic wind?
anabatic wind, also called upslope wind, local air current that blows up a hill or mountain slope facing the Sun. During the day, the Sun heats such a slope (and the air over it) faster than it does the adjacent atmosphere over a valley or a plain at the same altitude.
What does the word katabatic mean?
Definition of katabatic : relating to or being a wind produced by the flow of cold dense air down a slope (as of a mountain or glacier) in an area subject to radiational cooling.
How is a chinook wind different from a katabatic wind?
Katabatic winds often originate over high elevation snow covered plateaus where stagnant air can become quite cold and also very dry. A chinook (foehn) wind is a warm dry down slope wind.
How does Anabatic wind occur?
Anabatic winds are mainly created by ultraviolet solar radiation heating up the lower regions of an orographic area (i.e. valley walls). Due to its limited heat capacity, the surface heats the air immediately above it by conduction. As the air warms, its volume increases, and hence density and pressure decreases.
What is the difference between Anabatic and katabatic winds?
Notes: Anabatic wind is a warm wind which blows up a steep slope or mountain side. Katabatic wind carries high density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity.
What does chinook wind mean?
Definitions of chinook wind. a warm dry wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rockies. synonyms: chinook, snow eater. type of: air current, current, current of air, wind. air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.
What is katabatic wind in meteorology?
Katabatic winds (from Greek – katabatikos meaning ‘going down’) form when cold air above a plateau, mountain, glacier, or even a hill flows down a slope due to gravity. Katabatic winds are cool, dry and can be strong. They are very common in the Antarctic and can achieve wind speeds of 190 mph.
Why are katabatic winds associated with temperature inversions?
Warming during katabatic winds is usually due to adiabatic warming and increased mixing in the stable boundary layer so that warmer inversion‐layer air is brought down to the surface.
Why is harmattan called Doctor wind?
The Harmattan blows during the dry season, which occurs during the months with the lowest sun. On its passage over the Sahara, the harmattan picks up fine dust and sand particles (between 0.5 and 10 microns). It is also known as the “doctor wind”, because of its invigorating dryness compared with humid tropical air.