Atmospheric moisture Flashcards
What is not true about the hydrologic cycle?
Water is interchanged only in its liquid state
What is the characteristic of water molecules that gives water “sticky” quality?
Hydrogen bonds
What is the process by which water travels upward through small crevasses?
capillarity
Which property of water means it can physically break apart rock as mechanical weathering?
Ice expansion
What is the phase change in which water changes from a solid to a gas?
Sublimation
What is true about waters phase changes and latent heat?
When water melts, latent heat is absorbed
Under which conditions would evaporation take place at the quickest rate?
Warm air over warm water
What is not true about evapotranspiration?
It involves the return of water to the land surface?
What occurs when water molecules in the air exert the maximum possible pressure at at given temperature?
Saturation
What is specific humidity?
Mass of water in a given mass of air
Which measure of humidity describes how close the air is to saturation with water vapor?
Relative humidity
What is the main determinant for airs water vapor capacity?
Temperature
What is the dew point temp?
Temp air must reach to saturate
What is the most common way air becomes saturated so that condensation occurs?
Water vapor is cooled below the dew point
What are the hygroscopic particles necessary for the formation of clouds and rain?
Condensation nuclei
What occurs when air is at max vapor pressure, cooling continues with no condensation nuclei and temp stays above freezing?
Air reaches supersaturation
What is not true about the dry adiabatic rate?
Air must be completely dry
What marks the transition between the dry adiabatic rate and the saturated adiabatic rate?
Environmental lapse rate
What is not true about the saturated adiabatic rate?
Cooling is faster that in unsaturated air
What will be the new temp of dry air that started at 25 c and was lifted 1 km
15 c
Which type of cloud is shown 1.
Cirrus
Which cloud is shown 2.
Nimbostratus
What is fog that forms when warm air passes over a cool surface, cooling to the dew point
Advection fog
What forms dew?
Nighttime air that is cooled by conduction
If a parcel of air is warmer than the surrounding air, what happens?
It will continue to rise
What describes stable air?
A parcel that resists uplift
What is conditionally unstable air?
Stable air that lifts and then becomes unstable
Which type of precipitation process is dominant in high altitude clouds outside of the tropics?
ice crystal formation
What is the main reaction precipitation forms on the windward side?
Orographic lifting
What type of atmospheric lifting process is started by the unequal heating of different surface areas?
Convective
What is not true about the global distribution of precipitation?
Polar areas tend to have higher precipitation
