The climate on the planet of Pandora is very similar to the climate found around the Earth's equator. The planet experiences very warm and humid temperatures throughout the entire year. The high level of humidity is a result of the warmer air masses that are present on Pandora. The warmer air is able to retain more moisture, causing the specific humidity to be approximately 20g/kg.
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| This picture displays the lush fauna found on Pandora, which requires a large amount of precipitation to sustain |
The warm weather along with the abundance of water on Pandora leads to one very important thing to sustain life on the planet...rain, and lots of it. Due to the rapid evaporation of the surface water, clouds in Pandora's atmosphere reach their dew point very quickly and very commonly. Cumulonimbus clouds develop and the storm systems build until the dew point has been reached and the convective precipitation falls in the form of rain. Pandora experiences higher levels or rainfall than anywhere else known to man kind, beating out Earth's tropical regions hands down.
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This picture shows the final stages of a rain storm, also known as the dissipating stage, on Pandora
Notice the nimbostratus and remaining cumulonimbus clouds
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Pandora also is very well known for its fog. Almost like San Francisco, only a lot cooler and more alien-ish. The fog on Pandora however often times occurs at higher elevations than on Earth. This is because of the floating mountains. When the rain water evaporates off of the mountains radiation fog is formed, making the mountains look even more majestic.
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| Here is a picture of radiation fog developing off of the floating mountains |
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| and another |
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| Pandora is the perfect incubator for fog due to the large amount of rain |
Below is a picture of Pandora from space. You can clearly see the high and low pressure systems and the developing storm cells. It even looks like there is a developing hurricane, which I have circled. The warm waters and high humidity would make Pandora the essential location to study hurricanes, too bad it isn't real.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I love your place of choice for your blog! Avatar is one of my favorite movies so I wanted to use this week's comment on your post. I think it's really interesting how you have captured the weather on this beautiful landscape. The pictures you use to show how the weather affects the landscape were very well chosen. The greenery itself shows just how much precipitation this place gets. A place that is hot and humid year round would normally sound like a place I wouldn't want to be, but this is Pandora, and it's gorgeous! :) I like how you explained the process of how fog develops and gave us a visual of it on the floating mountains. It really gives an insight to how "magical" weather can be considering most people think rain and storms are violent before they think they are beautiful. An interesting statement was how the amount of rain on Pandora beats any amount on Earth "hands down." If real, Pandora would be the perfect place to me! Nice job!
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI love that you chose Pandora as well. I have always wished that it was a real place because of its beauty. You really did a nice job on the weather.I also really enjoyed the view of the world from space. You pointed out what looks like a hurricane forming. Since it rains so much in Pandora there seems to be a lot of fog forming over these mountains. My favorite of this entry was the way you pointed out the final stages of the rain storms.
Maggie