Climate & Physiognomy (Week 3 Lecture 4 & 5) Flashcards
______ is a local area’s short term temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, cloud cover and other physical conditions of the atmosphere measured over hours or days.
Weather
______ is a Long-term prevailing weather conditions in an area.
Climate
______ consists of patterns on the global, regional, and landscape (multiple ecosystems) level.
Macroclimate
______ consists of very fine patterns, such as those encountered by the community of organisms underneath a fallen log.
Microclimate
What determines microclimate?
Determined by fine-scale differences in the environment that affect light and wind patterns
What determines the general type of vegetation in an area?
Climate determines the general type of vegetation in an area
Who found the effects of altitude and air pressure on patterns of temperature and precipitation.
Alexander van Hulmboldt
What are the two primary components of a region’s climate?
Temperature and moisture
The climate is determined by ______ ______ and ______ of ______ and ______.
mean variability, seasonality of Temperature and percipitation
______ is a measure of the total kinetic energy, the energy of motion of the molecules in a substance.
Heat
______ is a measure of the average kinetic energy of those molecules.
Temperature
True or False: Temperature at any spot on the earth’s surface – determined primarily by the amount of radiant energy that receives from the sun.
True
True or False: The sun’s energy is the longwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
False, shortwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum
True or False: As objects heated by sunlight, they emit longwave radiant energy.
True
______ is the transport of heat energy from one place to another by atmospheric and oceanic currents.
Convection
______ ______ results when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reabsorbs longwave radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface.
Greenhouse effect
Secondary heating of the Earth’s surface then occurs by ______ from the atmosphere.
Reradiation
True or False: Without Greenhouse effect, the Earth would be bitterly cold everywhere, all of the time.
True
True or False: shortwave radiation absorbed by the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface is balanced by the long wave energy emitted
True
The combination of ______ and ______ radiation determines the ambient temperature at Earth’s surface.
Shortwave and longwave
______ is rainfall and snowfall and relative humidity.
Perciptation
True or False: Water molecules in the atmosphere are ineffective at absorbing longwave radiation, and therefore, humid air acts as a reservoir of stored heat.
False, they are effective
True or False: Warm air is less dense than cold air.
True, and therefore rises and has a greater capacity for holding moisture than does cooler air
______ is greatest at the equator, and the air there is warmed, thus create a pattern of rising air in a belt around the Earth at the Equator
Solar radiation
What are the two outcomes of air movement from solar radiation?
Large amounts of precipitation in equatorial regions
Air flowing towards the Poles at high altitudes
True or False: The movement of air masses at the Earth’s surface is a major factor in determining surface oceanic currents, which in turn play a major role in terrestrial climates.
True
______ side of a mountain has high precipitation whereas the ______ sides of mountains have low precipitation.
Windward, leeward
______ ______ are created when dry air descends on the leeward side of the mountain.
Rain shadows
True or False: Every mountain cannot cast a rain shadow.
False, every mountain can cast a rain shadow
What are the two ways land masses can be affected by their proximity to oceans or other large bodies of water?
Air passing over the water can pick up moisture and deposit it on land as rain or snow or
Land can tend to lose moisture to the body of water depending on relative air and water temperatures
______ ______ is an example of when air passing over the water can pick up moisture and deposit it on land as rain or snow.
Lake effect
True or False: Patterns of variation in temperature and precipitation are generally regular with some predictability.
True
True or False: Changes in atmospheric CO2 levels (both natural and anthropogenic) – has large effects on global climate.
True
______ ______ creates rain shadows; rise of the Rocky mountains 34 mya and is associated with spread of grasslands across the middle of NA.
Mountain building
