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Encyclopedia > Virga
Nimbostratus virga
Nimbostratus virga

In meteorology, virga is precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. At high altitudes the precipitation falls mainly as ice crystals before melting and finally evaporating; this is usually due to compressional heating because the air pressure increases closer to the ground. It is very common in the desert. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 989 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Description: Nimbostratus, not raining yet. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 989 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Description: Nimbostratus, not raining yet. ... Satellite image of Hurricane Hugo with a polar low visible at the top of the image. ... Cumulonimbus capillatus incus floating over Swifts Creek, Victoria in Australia A cloud is a visible mass of condensed droplets or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. ... Snowflakes by Wilson Bentley, 1902 Ice is the name given to any one of the 14 known solid phases of water. ... Quartz crystal Synthetic bismuth crystal Insulin crystals Gallium, a metal that easily forms large single crystals A huge monocrystal of potassium dihydrogen phosphate grown from solution by Saint-Gobain for the megajoule laser of CEA. In chemistry and mineralogy, a crystal is a solid in which the constituent atoms, molecules... Diurnal (daily) rhythm of air pressure in northern Germany (black curve is air pressure) Atmospheric pressure is the pressure at any point in the Earths atmosphere. ... This article is about arid terrain. ...


Virga can cause very interesting weather effects, because as rain is changed from liquid to vapor form, it removes much heat from the air due to the high heat of vaporization of water. These small pockets of extremely cold air then descend rapidly, creating a microburst which can be extremely hazardous to aviation. The heat of vaporization is a physical property of substances. ... Layers of Atmosphere (NOAA) Air redirects here. ... A photograph of the surface curl soon after an intense microburst impacted the surface A microburst is a very localized column of sinking air, producing damaging divergent and straight-line winds at the surface that are similar to but distinguishable from tornadoes which generally have convergent damage. ... Aviation refers to flying using aircraft, machines designed by humans for atmospheric flight. ...


Virga also has a role in seeding storm cells, where light particles from one cloud are blown into neighboring supersaturated air and act as nucleation particles for the next thunderhead cloud to begin forming. Aerosol pollution over Northern India and Bangladesh - NASA Cloud condensation nuclei or CCNs are small particles (typically 0. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...


Virga can produce dramatic and beautiful scenes, especially during a red sunset. The red light can be caught by the streamers of falling precipitation, while aloft winds push the bottom ends of the virga so it falls at an angle, making the clouds appear to have commas attached. A composite image showing the terminator dividing night from day, running across Europe and Africa. ... The term comma has various uses; comma is the name used for one of the punctuation symbols: , The term comma is also used in music theory for various small intervals that arise as differences between approximately equal intervals. ...


Virga is a Latin word for a branch or twig, and hence for objects made from it, as a broom, a staff, or a rod (hence the English word virge). Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... // A staff is a large, thick stick or stick-shaped object used to help with walking, as a status symbol, or as a weapon. ... In geometry, a Rod is a 3-dimensional, solid (filled) cylinder. ... The Virtual Reality Graphics Engine (ViRGE) graphics chipset was one of the first 2D/3D accelerators designed for the mass market. ...


Extraterrestrial versions

Sulfuric acid rain in the atmosphere of Venus evaporates before reaching the ground due to the immense heat down towards the surface. Sulfuric acid, H2SO4, is a strong mineral acid. ... Venus, the second planet from the Sun, has an atmosphere very different from that of Earth. ...


See also

Fall streaks are falling ice crystals that evaporate before reaching the ground. ... During the 1920s, the first laws were passed in the USA to regulate civil aviation. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Virga
  • National Science Digital Library - Virga
  • Picture: Virga over Düsseldorf, Germany.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Virga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (245 words)
Virga is a meteorologic term for precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground.
Virga also has a role in seeding storm cells, where light particles from one cloud are blown into neighbouring supersaturated air and act as nucleation particles for the next thunderhead cloud to begin forming.
Virga is a Latin word for a branch or twig, and hence for objects made from it, as a broom, a staff or a rod (hence the English word virge).
  More results at FactBites »


 

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