CH 6

Question 1

What happens to pressure and density when altitude increase?

Answer 1

they decrease

Question 2

What exactly is “thin air”?

Answer 2

it is because of less oxygen, so fewer molecules.

Question 3

What is acute mountain sickness?

Answer 3

Mountain climbers experience this sickness

Question 4

Dense and pressure in cold air vs warm air

Answer 4

Warm air has less density and pressure compared to cold air

Question 5

Mercury barometer

Answer 5

He sealed the glass tube at one end, filled it with mercury, and inverted it into a dish containing mercury, at which point a small space containing a vacuum was formed in the tube’s closed end. The average height of the mercury depended on the weather, the mass of surrounding air was exerting pressure on the mercury in the dish and thus counterbalancing the weight of the column of mercury in the tube.

Question 6

Aneroid barometer

Answer 6

Aneroid means “no liquid”, Imagine a small chamber, partially emptied of air, which is sealed and connected to a mechanism attached to a needle on a dial. As the air pressure outside the chamber increases, it presses inward on the chamber; as the outside air pressure decreases, it relieves the pressure on the chamber—in both cases causing changes in the chamber that move the needle

Question 7

2 properties of wind are:

Answer 7

speed and direction

Question 8

Instruments for measuring wind speed and direction:

Answer 8

speed = anemometer

direction = wind vane

Question 9

Beaufort wind scale

Answer 9

ships used to use this to find wind speed

Question 10

the four forces which determine speed and direction of winds:

Answer 10

1- gravitational forcer

2- Pressure gradient force

3- Coriolis force

4- Friction force

Question 11

gravitational force

Answer 11

The gravitational force counteracts the outward centrifugal force acting on Earth’s spinning surface and atmosphere. Without gravity, there would be no atmospheric pressure—or atmosphere, for that matter

Question 12

Pressure gradient force:

Answer 12

Drives air from areas of higher barometric pressure, to areas with lower barometric pressure thereby causing winds.

Question 13

Coriolis force:

Answer 13

A deflective force that makes wind traveling in a straight path appear to be deflected in relation to earth’s rotating surface. An example of this force is how the flight path changes from country to country, the path would have stayed straight if earth was not rotating.

Question 14

Factors that contribute to the Coriolis force:

Answer 14

earth’s rotation

deflection occurs regardless of the direction the object is moving

deflection increases with speed of object

Question 15

Isobar:

Answer 15

An isoline ( a line which there is constant value) plotted on a weather map to connect points of equal pressure. The spacing between isobars indicates the intensity of the pressure difference, or pressure gradient

More space between isobars means less winds

Less space between isobars means more wind

pic below:
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Question 16

Geostrophic winds:

Answer 16

flow parallel to isobars because they balance the pressure force and the Earth’s rotation, instead of going directly from high to low pressure.

Question 17

What causes geostrophic wind flows in the upper atmosphere?

Answer 17

Surface friction interfering with the pressure gradient and the Coriolis force

Question 18

Anticyclone:

Answer 18

wind spiral clockwise outwards from a high pressure area

air moves away from the center of an anticyclone

Question 19

cyclone:

Answer 19

wind spiral anticlockwise into low pressure area

surface air flows toward the center of a cyclone, it converges and moves upward (stormy weather)

https://plus.pearson.com/eps/pearson-reader/api/item/dad600a5-17dd-4611-bbed-0a368ab01d61/1/file/9780134853543_et2_dccsb_l2_redserif_default/OPS/images/fg06_09.png

Question 20

Atmospheric circulation is categorized at three levels:

Answer 20

1- primary circulation: consisting of general worldwide circulation

2- secondary circulation: consisting of migratory high-pressure and low-pressure systems

3- tertiary circulation: including local winds and temporal weather patterns

Question 21

Meridional flows:

Answer 21

Winds that move principally north or south along meridians of longitude

Question 22

Zonal flows:

Answer 22

winds that move east or west along parallels of latitude

Question 23

Hadley cell

Answer 23

Responsible for tropical wind circulation

Question 24

intertropical convergence zone

Answer 24

area where trade winds meet

Question 25

Trade winds

Answer 25

The winds converging at the equatorial low

Question 26

Rossby waves:

Answer 26

occur along the polar front where cold air meets warm air, and brings cold air southwards, with warm air moving northwards

Question 27

Jet streams:

Answer 27

irregular, concentrated bands of wind occurring at several different locations that influence surface weather systems. They weaken during the hemisphere’s summer and strengthen during its winter as the streams shift closer to the equator

Question 28

Monsoons:

Answer 28

Seasonally shifting wind systems which bring rain during the summer months

Question 29

Land and sea breezes

Answer 29

The different heating characteristics of land and water surfaces create these breezes

Question 30

How do breeze occur?

Answer 30

Warm air is less dense, it rises, creating a lower-pressure area that triggers an onshore flow of cooler marine air to replace the rising warm air. At night, land radiates energy faster than the water, so the cool air above the land subsides to the shore of the water where the lower pressure area over the warm water

https://plus.pearson.com/eps/pearson-reader/api/item/dad600a5-17dd-4611-bbed-0a368ab01d61/1/file/9780134853543_et2_dccsb_l2_redserif_default/OPS/images/fg06_17.png

Question 31

Kabatic winds

Answer 31

elevated land or highland is where they are formed. Layers o air at the surface cool and become more dense, then flow downwards the slope. They are not related to the pressure gradient

Question 32

What is the driving force for ocean currents?

Answer 32

frictional drag of winds

Question 33

western intensification:

Answer 33

Trade winds push ocean surface waters westward along the equator, forming equatorial currents. These currents stay near the equator because the Coriolis force is weak there. As the water reaches the western edges of the oceans, it “piles up” against the eastern coasts of continents, creating a rise in water level of about 15 cm.

Question 34

Upwelling currents

Answer 34

occur when surface water is swept away from a coast by divergence (Coriolis force) or offshore winds

Question 35

Downwelling currents

Answer 35

In areas where water accumulates, like the western end of an equatorial current or near Antarctica, the excess water sinks

Question 36

Thermohaline circulation

Answer 36

different temperatures and salinity that produce density differences which are important to the flow of deep currents

Question 37

Why is climate change effecting THC?

Answer 37

Ocean surface water become “freshened” when water freezes since it releases salt when it does, and so after it melts again the water is fresh and salt free. Climate change is accelerating this process because when the increasing glacial, and ice sheets melt, there is more less dense and fresh water floating over the dense and salty water that was already there. If a significant amount of fresh water enters the North Atlantic, it could lower the seawater density enough to stop downwelling, potentially disrupting the thermohaline circulation

Question 38

Southern oscillation

Answer 38

The shifting of atmospheric pressure and wind patterns across the Pacific. Pressure patterns and surface ocean temperatures shift from their usual locations in the Pacific, higher pressure than normal develops over the western Pacific, and lower pressure develops over the eastern Pacific. Trade winds moving from east to west also change from west to east.

Question 39

La nino and La nina

Answer 39

warm phase and cold phase