What is downslope flow?
Downslope Flow A thermally driven wind directed down a mountain slope and usually occurring at night; part of the along-slope wind system.
What causes a downslope flow?
Downslope flow is air moving over terrain such that it flows from a higher to a lower elevation. This in effect produces a sinking of the air. Air that sinks undergoes adiabatic transformations to temperature and relative humidity. When air sinks, the temperature increases.
What is a downslope wind?
Downslope Winds occur when warm/dry air descends rapidly down a mountain side. These are common on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, called Chinook Winds. This creates dry winds that flow east to west through the mountain passages in Southern California.
What is upslope flow?
An anabatic wind, from the Greek anabatos, verbal of anabainein meaning moving upward, is a warm wind which blows up a steep slope or mountain side, driven by heating of the slope through insolation. It is also known as an upslope flow. These winds typically occur during the daytime in calm sunny weather.
What is the downslope movement of soil and rock due to gravity?
Mass movement is an erosional process that moves rocks and sediments downslope due to the force of gravity. The material is transported from higher elevations to lower elevations where other transporting agents like streams or glaciers can pick it up and move to even lower elevations.
Why do rocks and soil move downslope?
Mass wasting – is movement in which bed rock, rock debris, or soil moves downslope in bulk, or as a mass, because of the pull of gravity. Landslides is a general term for the slow-to-very rapid descent of rock or soil.
Why are downslope winds warm?
As these brisk winds come across the Rocky Mountains, air is rising to move over the higher terrain. As the air rises, the moisture is squeezed out of the parcel of air, which leaves it very dry at the summit. This dry, cooled air then sinks down the lee side of the mountains and warms adiabatically.
Does cooling cause downslope winds?
katabatic wind, also called downslope wind, or gravity wind, wind that blows down a slope because of gravity. It occurs at night, when the highlands radiate heat and are cooled.
What are upslope conditions?
Upslope conditions develop when there’s a low-pressure center east and south of the Continental Divide. As the winds rotate counter-clockwise around the low, they push moist air up against the east slope of the Rockies. As the air climbs, it expands and cools.
What causes upslope winds?
Upslope Winds. Diurnal mountain winds are produced by horizontal temperatures differences that develop daily in complex terrain. Surface heating will cause the air nearer the slope to be warmed more than air farther from the surface. As the warm air rises, it results in an upward flow of air, causing an upslope wind.