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Meteorology Test 1
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is Climate | Weather over a period of time |
| What is weather | Single events, or a singular series of events |
| What is the difference between climate and weather | The time period involved |
| What are the four spheres of Earth | Geosphere (Lithosphere), Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere |
| What is the makeup of the Geosphere | Rock, solid earth, |
| What is the makeup of the Atmosphere | Air, |
| What is the makeup of the Hydrosphere | Water, (clouds, lakes, rivers etc) |
| What is the makeup of the Biosphere | Life forms |
| Composition of atmosphere | Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon dioxide, water vapor, aerosols, ozone |
| Most common Elements | Oxygen and Nitrogen |
| Role of carbon dioxide | absorbs energy efficiently and influences heating of the atmosphere |
| Role of water vapor | Responsible for clouds, precipitation, transporting latent heat, absorbs heat, |
| Role of ozone | absorbs UV radiation at higher altitudes |
| Where is ozone located | less ozone in atmosphere, mostly in stratosphere |
| What atmospheric pressure | weight of air above |
| How does pressure change with height | increased altitude decreases pressure, closer you are to surface the more pressure is above you |
| Rate of pressure change | Range of pressure change is not constant, negative exponential |
| What are the layers of the atmosphere (in order) | Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere |
| How does temp change in the Troposphere | temp decreases with altitude, lapse rate averages 6.5 degrees c/km |
| How does temp change in the stratosphere | temp increases with altitude |
| How does temp change in the mesosphere | temp decreases with altitude |
| How does temp change in the thermosphere | can reach 1800 degrees f |
| What is the warmest layer of the atmosphere | Thermosphere |
| What is the coldest layer of the atmosphere | Mesosphere |
| What is the name for the aurora in the northern hemisphere | Aurora borealis |
| What is the name for the aurora in the southern hemisphere | Aurora australis |
| What are Earth's two motions | Rotation (spin) and Revolution (orbit) |
| What is the difference between Earth's rotation and revolution | Rotation is the spinning of the earth on its axis, revolution is the movement of the earth around the sun |
| What is the perihelion, and when does it occur | The closest point to the sun, occurs around January 3rd |
| What is the aphelion and when does it occur | The furthest point from the sun, occurs around July 4th |
| What causes the seasons | Primary cause of season is earth's rotation axis, which causes sun angles and daylight length to vary. |
| What is the angle of earth's tilt | 23.5 degrees |
| What does the sun angle determine | determines the path of the sun rays |
| What time of year is there no favor on the tilt of the sun | During the autumnal and vernal equinoxes |
| When is the summer solstice | June 21 or 22 |
| When is the winter solstice | December 21 or 22 |
| When is the Autumnal (fall) equinox | September 21 or 22 |
| When is the Vernal (spring) equinox | March 21 or 22 |
| What happens on the Autumnal / vernal equinox | Sun rays are vertical to the equator, day and night are equal |
| What happens at the summer solstice | Sun rays are vertical to the tropic of cancer in the northern hemisphere, longest day of the year |
| What happens at the winter solstice | Sun rays are vertical to the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere, shortest day of the year |
| When is climatological summer | June 1 through September 1 |
| When is climatological Fall | September 1 through December 1 |
| When is climatological Winter | December 1 through March 1 |
| When is climatological Spring | March 1 through June 1 |
| Energy definition | Capacity to do work |
| Kinetic energy | energy in motion |
| potential energy | an object is capable of either motion or work given the right circumstances |
| Temperature definition | measure of the average kinetic energy of atoms or molecules in a substance |
| What direction does heat flow | Flows from regions of higher temperature to lower temperatures |
| What is latent heat | energy absorbed or released but with no change in temperature |
| What is sensible heat | the heat we can feel or measure with a thermometer |
| Convection | Heat transferred via movement or circulation of a substance |
| Is convection horizontal or vertical | vertical |
| Advection | describes the horizontal component of convective flow |
| Is advection horizontal or vertical | horizontal |
| Albedo | percentage of radiation reflected by an object |
| What objects have high albedos | snow, thick clouds, light colored things |
| What objects have low albedos | dark soils, parking lots, |
| What makes an object more conducive to absorbing heat | Darker colored objects absorb heat |
| What makes an object more conducive to reflecting heat | Lighter colored objects reflect heat |
| What is an isotherm | a line connecting places with "equal" temperature, allowing patterns to be identified easily |
| What is the temperature gradient | temp change per unit of distance |
| What does tight spacing suggest | larger gradient (rapid change over a distance) |
| What does loose spacing suggest | smaller gradient (more gradual change over a distance) |
| What are factors that cause temps to change | latitude, differential heating, ocean currents, altitude/elevation, geographic positioning |
| Does land or water heat up/cool down faster | land |
| Do areas inland or near water have a greater variability of temperature throughout the year | Inland has more variability, whereas near water has less |
| How do clouds impact temps during the day and night | During the day they reflect heat out, at night they keep heat in |
| How does albedo impact temperatures | high albedo reduces surface temperature |
| What causes the urban island effect | surfaces like cement and asphalt that are better absorbers of heat lead to higher summertime temperatures |
| Magnitude of the daily temperature range | mid and low latitudes, there is a high sun angle and large variations, and higher latitudes, there is low sun angle and low variations |
| Primary purpose of ocean currents | transfer heat and equalize the imbalance of energy between the poles and the equator |
| How do mountains affect climate | can cut off the influence of the ocean on a location, downslope side tends to be warmer |
| Latent heat | Energy that does not produce a phase change. When water vapor condenses to form cloud droplets latent heat is released, warming the surrounding air |
| Condensation | A warming process, starts the process of allowing clouds to accumulate and can lead to precipitation |
| How does temp affect the amount of water vapor that can be held in the air | The higher the temp, the more water vapor needed to saturate the air |
| Relative humidity | indicates how close the air is to saturation |
| Dew point | the temp to which air needs to be cooled to reach saturation. Also the actual amount of water vapor in the air |
| What happens when the air reaches the saturation point | There is no longer a place for any additional water in vapor form, so condensation takes place |
| What is the dry adiabatic lapse rate | unsaturated air cools at a rate of 10 degrees/1000 meters |
| What is the wet adiabatic lapse rate | varies from 5 to 9 degrees/1000 meters |
| Does air contract or expand when rising | When air rises it expands and cools |
| Does air contract or expand when it sinks | When air sinks it compresses and warms |
| What are the four types of air lifting | orographic, frontal lifting, convergence and localized convective lifting |
| What is orographic lifting | when elevated terrains act as barriers to the air, forcing the air to go up and around the barrier |
| What is frontal lifting | Masses of warm and cold air collide, producing a front |
| What is covergence lifting | A wind pattern where more air is moving in than leaving, results in upward movement of air |
| What is localized convective lifting | Unequal heating at the surface that causes localized pockets of air to rise |
| What does stable air do | Stable air resists movement, and needs an outside force to make it rise |
| What does unstable air do | rises to due to buoyancy |
| Is unstable air warmer or cooler than the surrounding air | unstable air is warmer and therefore less dense than the surrounding air |
| What is the environmental lapse rate | The actual occurring temperature rate of change of the atmosphere |
| What is the environmental lapse rate that causes absolute stability | Must be less than we adiabatic lapse rate, which is 10 degrees/1000 meters |
| What environmental lapse rate causes absolute instability | Must be greater than the dry adiabatic lapse rate |
| What environmental lapse rate causes conditional instability | A lapse rate between the dry and we adiabatic rates. Between 5 and 10 degrees |
| How does stability change | Any factor that causes air near the surface to become warm relative to air aloft makes the air more unstable. When air is cooled from below, it becomes more stable |
| Do we want warm or cool air down below | We want warm air down below and cooler air above. Warm air will continue to rise until it's warmer than the surrounding air, then it will become denser and sink |
| What is subsidence | a general downward air flow |
| What weather is associated with subsidence | clear, blue, cloudless skies, and pretty weather |
| The stability of an air layer refers to its | tendency to either sustain or suppress upward vertical motions |
| As the temperature of air is reduced to its dew point, which of these is most likely to occur | condensation |
| What are cloud condensation nuclei | acts as a surface on which the water vapor can condense |
| The most common way for air to be cooled in order that a cloud may form is by | rising and expanding |
| Clouds, dew and frost all form because air has become saturated. This condition of saturation is usually caused by | the air being cooled |
| When warm moist air moves over a cold surface, what fog occurs | advection fog |
| What are cirrus clouds | high, white and think clouds |
| What are cumulus clouds | globular, fluffy clouds that can look like shapes |
| What are stratus clouds | layers of clouds covering much of the sky |
| What are the heights of high clouds | clouds above 20,000 feet |
| What are the heights of middle clouds | clouds between 6,000 and 20,000 feet |
| What are the heights of low clouds | clouds less than 6,000 feet |
| What are vertical development clouds | clouds that extend upward to span more than one height range |
| What are high clouds | cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus (cirro prefix) |
| What are middle clouds | altocumulus, altostratus, (alto prefix) |
| What are low clouds | stratus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus (contains strat) |
| Which clouds are associated with vertical development | cumulonimbus, cumulus numilis, cumulus congestus (cumulus prefix) |
| Why are high altitude clouds so high | Due to how high they are, they are usually composed of ice crystals, and don't have a large capacity to hold condensation |
| What are they four types of fog | radiation, advection, upslope, and evaporative fog |
| What causes radiation fog | radiation cooling of the ground and air |
| What causes advection fog | warm moist air blowing over a cold surface |
| What causes upslope fog | when relatively humid air moves up a sloping landform |
| What causes frontal evaporation fog | when rain falls and evaporates, saturating the cooler air below |
| What causes steam evaporation fog | when cool air moves over warm water |
| What is collision and coalescence | small droplets hit other droplets and become bigger to create raindrops that can fall |
| What is the difference between fluffy vs wet snow | fluffy light snow is from low temps, with low moisture content, whereas wet heavy snow is from higher temps with higher moisture content |
| How does freezing rain occur | rain drops that become super-cooled, hit a cold surface and immediately freeze |
| How does sleet occur | particles of ice or raindrops that freeze as they fall |
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