OpenBook Test, April 14, 1999

Problem Set 1

Using a calculator, determine the following:

  1. Assume the Moon is in a circular orbit around the Earth. Calculate its period of rotation T in days.
  2. What is the magnitude of the acceleration that holds the moon in its orbit? Express it in m/sec2.
  3. If NOAA has a satellite that orbits the earth every 102 minutes, and we assume the orbit is circular, how high above the surface of the earth is the satellite located?
  4. Use equation 1.3 to determine the distance above the earth of a satellite in geosynchronous orbit (an orbit in which the satellite has the same angular velocity as the Earth: 7.292115 x 10-5 rad sec-1. (Just a little reminder, the angular velocity is simply 2pi/T where T is the period of rotation.)
  5. Go to the NOAASIS website and get the value of the semi-major axis of the GOES 8 satellite. How does it compare to the answer in 4 above? Why are they different?

Some helpful information.

Answers:

IR/Sounding Intercomparison

Select an image time between now and Wednesday classtime (March 24)  and compare the IR band (from the UVA Weather page, or any other internet weather page you would like to use).  Using current soundings from two sites (matching, as close as possible the time of the image, either 00UTC or 12 UTC), compare the features observed in the IR (GOES Band 4) image with the vertical structure of temperature for these two locations.  You can retrieve soundings interactively from the following location:

http://www-das.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html

Paste this information onto a webpage, and make it available to me through an email message that you have completed the assigment (and giving me the link).

Details on how to read a sounding!