Chapter 28 and 29 Flashcards
What is Troposhere?
A layer extending an average of 12 km above Earth’s surface.
What is Temperature inversion?
This occurs when air temperature increases with altitude and the air becomes stable.
What is the Green House Effect?
Is the natural process in which certain gases in the atmosphere warm a planet as they absorb and emit infrared radiation.
How are the atmospheric layers divided?
Based on differences in composition and temperature.;
What gas makes up the majority of the atmosphere?
Nitrogen
What gas makes 21 percent of the atmosphere?
Oxygen
What is the remaining one percent in the atmosphere?
Trace gases-majority is Argon
What is the ozone layer?
Protects us from the harmful radiation.
In the Troposphere does temperature decrease or increase with altitude?
decreases.
How many layers are there in Earth’s Atmosphere?
5 layers
What are the name of the atmospheric layers closest to earth’s surface to farthest to earth’s surface?
Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, and Exosphere.
What layer is the ozone layer found?
Stratosphere
In the mesosphere does the temperature decrease or increase with altitude?
decrease
Does the thermosphere and exosphere affect weather?
No
How much of solar radiation is absorbed by Earth’s surface?
50%
How much solar radiation is reflected back by land and sea surface?
5%
How much solar radiation is absorbed by particles in the atmosphere?
20%
How much of radiation is reflected back by clouds and other particles?
25%
What are the three basic cloud types?
Stratus,cumulus, cirrus
Describe Stratus clouds.
Layered sheetlike clouds
Describe Cumulus clouds
puffy
Describe Cirrus clouds
Wispy and are high altitude clouds.
What are the steps of the water cycle?
evaporation,condensation, transpiration, precipitation,runoff, and infiltration
Jet Stream
A narrow band of fast-moving, high-altitude aire.
Coriolis effect
The apparent deflection of an object due to Earth’s rotation.
Air mass
A large volume of air with uniform moisture and temperature throughout.
weather fronts
air masses that interact in zones
How many jet streams are there in the world?
Four
How many pressure systems are there?
Two
What is a low pressure system also known as?
L
Which direction does air flows for low pressure system?
Counterclockwise
What are some results from a low pressure system?
cloud formation and precipitation.
What is a high pressure system also known as?
H
What direction does a high pressure system rotate?
Clockwise
What are some results from High Pressure system?
Clear skies.
What are the four types of weather fronts?
Cold, Warm, Stationary, and Occuluded.
How does a cold front form?
Cold air forces warm air upward in a fast and chaotic manner.
How is a cold front represented on a weather forecast?
A blue triangle
How are warm fronts formed?
Warm air rises gently above cold air.
How are hot fronts represented in forecasts?
Red semicircles
How are stationary fronts created?
Cold and warm air masses meet and neither front advances
How are stationary fronts represented on forecasts
Red half circles on top and blue triangles on bottom and they rotate.
How are occluded fronts created?
A fast moving cold front overtakes a slow warm front.
How do occluded fronts represented on forecast?
Purple triangle and semicircles rotate
Maritime climate
A climate that is strongly affected by an ocean.
Continental climate
A climate that is not directly affected by an ocean.
Sea breeze
Blows from over the water toward land in the afternoon, when the land is warmer than the ocean.
What is weather?
Are the day to day outside conditions.
What are the five spheres of Earth’s System?
Atmosphere, Cryosphere, Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere.
What is the atmosphere?
The air around us.
What is biosphere?
Everything organic?
What is the hydrosphere?
Everything that is liquid water.
What is cryosphere?
Everything that is frozen water like in snow ice and glaciers.
What is the lithosphere?
Earth’s outermost layer.
What is the primary factor that influences climate at a given location?
Latitiude.
Where is solar radiation most intense on earth’s surface?
Equator.
At what degree does the sun rays hit the tropical area?
90 degrees.
At what angle does the sun rays hit the temperate?
45 degrees.
At what angle does the sun rays hit the pole?
30 degrees
What other factors determine climate?
Precipitation, mountains, and bodies of water.
On the windward side what are the conditions?
Cool, and wet, and a lot of vegetation.
What are the conditions of the leeward side.
Dry, not a lot of vegetation and warm.
What is land breeze?
It happens at night, the wind comes from the land to the water.
What type of climate zone and vegetation does Lamar have.
Warm Semi-arid and grassland.
Global Warming
An increase in the average temperatures of Earth’s near-surface air and ocean.
El nino
The warming of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of western South America that occurs every 3 to 10 years.
La nina
When trade winds in teh Pacific are unusually stong adn surface water is colder than normal.
What are the two changes that Earth’s climate undergoes?
Seasonal and Long term
When we are in summer time are we further away or closer to the sun?
Away
Which Hemisphere experiences summer?
The hemisphere tilted towards the sun.
What is the period where most of the Earth’s surface is covered in Ice?
Ice age.
How long ago did the Earth’s climate reach its current state?
3,000 years ago
What are some factors that can cause climate change?
Change in Earths axis, the shape of the orbit,the distance from the sun.
What are some human factors that can change Climate?
energy consumption, deforestation, and industrial and agricultural practice.
What is deforestation?
Involves the clearing of large areas of forest land.
Sphere
A round three dimensiojnal object, the surface of which is the same distance from the center in all directions.
Ellispe
An elongated closed curve with two foci.
How can you tell that Earth is Sphere?
- `People in different places see different stars
- Earths shadow on the moon during lunar eclipse is always curved
- Objects fall straight down to the surface as if they are failing toward the center of a sphere.
What are two factors that affect gravitational pull?
Mass and distance of an object
What is the longest distance of Earth? Pole to Pole or the Equator?
Equator.
What does the magnetic field protect Earth from?
Harmful solar radiation.
Which magnetic pole is located in the Northern Hemisphere?
South Magnetic field.
At what degrees is Earth’s axis tilted?
11.7 degrees.
Can magnetic poles flip flop?
Yes
What are the large scale movements called wnen the magnetic poles flip?
Magnetic Reversals
When did the last magnetic reversal happen?
780,000 years ago
Within Earth’s magnetic field what reflects solar radiation?
magnetosphere.
What are the scientific names of the northern and southern lights?
Aurora Borealis and Aurora Austrailis
How are the Aurora created?
Electrically charged particles collide with atoms in the atmosphere and emit light.
What is earth closest to the sun?
January
When is the Earth the farthest away from the sun?
July
Time zone
An area with fifteen degree wide in which the time is the same.
Rotation
Is the spinning of Earth on its axis, and line drawn from Earth’s north pole to its south pole.
Revolution
is the motion of Earth in an elliptical orbit around the sun.
Ecliptic
Defined as the plane of Earths orbit around the sun.
Solstice
Occurs when Earth’s rotational axis is tilted directly toward the sun or away from the sun.
Equinox
Earth’s rotational axis is perpendicular to a line drawn form the center of Earth to the center of the sun.
who devised a method of timekeeping around 3000 B.C.?
Babylonians
What was the symbol for degree taken from?
The Babylonians’ symbol for the sun
How many degrees does the earth spin one day?
360
How many hours does it take the earth to make on full rotation?
24 hours
How many degrees does it take the earth spin in one hour?
15 degrees
What direction does the Sun rise?
East
What direction does the sun set?
West
True or false. All time zones are the exact same size?
False, they are modified to fit around cities, states, and country borders, and other key sites.
How many times zones are there in the world?
24
Which direction do you move to add hours to the time?
Which direction do you move to subtract hours from the time?
How many time zones are there in the United States?
Six time zones
What are the names of the time zones?
Pacific time, Mediterranean time, Atlantic/Alsakian timezone,Central timezone, Eastern timezone, and Hawaiian Timezone.
What is a solar day?
The movement of the Sun from noon one day until noon the next day.
What is a sidereal day?
See a certain star when it comes over the horizon until the next day.
What are the two main reasons for season?
Tilt of the axis and Revolution
Which two season have a solstice?
Summer and Winter.
Whihc month is the Winter solstice?
December 21
Which month is the summer solstice in?
July 21
Which two season are equinoxes?
Fall and Spring
Which month is the spring equinox?
March
What month is the fall equinox?
September 21 or 22
When is the longest day of the year?
July 21 or summer Solstice
When is the shortest day of the year?
December 21 or 23 Solstice
When are the days almost 12 hours of day and 12 hours of nigh?
Equinox March 21 or 22 and September 22 or 23
Moon Phase
Reflects the change in appearance of the Moon as seen from Earth.
Tide
A rise or fall in the ocean’s surface
lunar eclipse
Occurs when the Sun and the Moon and casts a shadow on the Moon
Solar eclipse
Occurs when the Moon moves directly between the Sun and Earth and casts a shadow on Earth
Maria
The dark-colored flat, lava-filled regions on the moon’s surface.
Regolith
A layer of dusty lunar material produced by collisions between asteroids and comets and the moon.
How many days does it take the moon to revolve around Earth?
27.3 days
A complete lunar phase cycle takes 29.5 days, what is this called?
Synodic month
Do we ever see the back side of the moon?
No
What causes a tide to rise or fall?
Gravitational pulls of the sun and the moon.
What is the rise of sea level called?
High tides
After the sea level rises how many hours does it take for the sea level drop?
6 hours
Which farther from Earth, the sun or the moon?
Sun.
Does the moon or the sun cause a greater effect on Earth’s tides?
Moon.
How are the sun, the earth, and the moon aligned for a spring tide?
The earth is in between the Sun and the moon?
How are the sun, the earth, and the moon aligned for a neap tide?
it makes a 90 degree angle,
What does the phase of the moon you see depend on?
Depends on the positions of the moon, Earth, adn the Sun relative to each other.
When does a new moon occur?
When the moon is between the Earth and Sun.
How many phases of the moon are there?
8
What is the definition of waxing phases?
When the illuminated portion that we see appears larger each night.
What is the definition of waning phases?
The illuminated portion that we see begins to appear smaller
What are the moon phase names?
New moon, Waxing crescent, 1st quarter, waxing gibbous, full waning gibbous,3rd quarter, and waning crescent
Where is the word month derived from?
The same root word as moon.
How is the earth moon and sun aligned during a solar eclipse?
Sun, moon, Earth.
What is an umbra?
The darkest portion of the Moon’s shadow.
What is penumbra?
Partial eclipse,
How is the earth, moon, and sun aligned during a lunar eclipse?
The earth is between the sun and moon.
how are the depression on the moon formed?
Comets, meteors, and Asteroids making contact with the surface of the Moon.
Are there mountains on the moon?
yes
Which side of the moon is thicker?
The Dark side
Is the mantle of the moon a solid or a liquid?
solid
What did the Clementine spacecraft do?
Info on the mineral content of moon rocks
The thickness of the crust
What did the Lunar Prospector do?
Took surface photos
confirmed that the moon had a iron rich core
collected evidence that supports the presence of water-ice on the moon
What is the Giant Impact theory?
The moon formed about 4.8 billion years ago when a Mars sized object collided with Earth.
