METEOROLOGY Flashcards
A bar is a unit of pressure equivalent to:
1000 millibars
A countercurrent running north along the west coast of the United States from Northern California to Washington to at least 48 deg. Latitude during the winter months.
Davidson current
A diagram on a pilot chart consisting of a circle from which 8 or 16 lines emenate, one for each compass point wherein the length of each line is proportional to the frequency of wind from that direction,and the percentage of calms is entered at its cente
Wind Rose
A forecast of weather conditions for a period extending beyond three or more days from the day of issuance.
Extended Forecast
A front across which the characterisitics of temperature change and shift of winds are weak.
Diffuse front
A front at which the warm air descends the frontal surface is a:
Katafront
A front at which the warm air is ascending up the frontal surface up to high altitudes.
Anafront
A front presumed to exist within the equatorial trough separating the air of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Intertropical front
A heavy cloud bank that appears on the horizon with the approach of an intense tropical cyclone.
Cloud Bar
A high pressure that may be completely encircled by an isobar is a:
Closed High
A large wave that rolls over or breaks on a beach or a reef is called:
comber
A large, faintly colored, circular arc formed by light (usually sunlight) falling on cloud or fog.
all of these
A line drawn on a weather chart having equal or constant temperature.
isotherm
A line drawn through all points on a chart having the same amount of cloudiness is called:
isoneph
A line drawn through all points on a isomagnetic chart having the same amount of magnetic variation.
isogonic
A line drawn through all points on the Earth’s surface having the same magnetic inclination is called:
isoclinic
A line joining geographical points of equal insolation during a specific interval of time.
isohel
A line on a chart connecting all points of equal salinity or constant salinity.
isohaline
A line on a given surface chart connecting points with equal wind speed.
isotach
A line on a weather chart connecting points of the same barometric tendencies.
isallobars
A long, well-defined wisps of cirrus clouds, thicker at one end than the other.
mare’s tails
A low pressure that may be completely encircled by an isobar is a:
Closed Low
A mass of air that is devoid or free of clouds or fog is called:
Clear air
A moderate to gale-force southeasterly wind in the Persian Gulf accompanied by gloomy weather, rain and squalls.
Sharki
A monthly broadcast of the mean values of the meteorological elements during the preceding months for stations belonging to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Climat Broadcast
A nautical term for the equatorial trough, with special reference to the light and variable nature of the winds.
Doldrums
A northwesterly gale of the West Indies.
Chocolatta North
A patch of white water formed at the crest of a wave as it breaks, due to air being mixed into the water.
White caps
A pattern of variable brightness on the underside of a cloud layer as a consequence of the variable reflectivity of the surface immediately underneath like ice, snow, land or water.
sky map
A period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and usually humid weather which may last from several days to several weeks.
Heat wave
A period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently lone enough to cause a serious hydrological imbalance.
Drought
A point in the sea where there is zero tidal amplitude due to cancelling of waves.
Amphidrome
A process in which a substance that can exist in two or more phases is converted from one phase to another as in evaporation, condensation, freezing, melting, and sublimation of water.
Change of Phase
A rapidly rotating column of air over a dry and dusty and shady area carrying leaves and other light materials picked up from the ground.
Dust Whirl
A rare type of fog formed in the same manner as a steam fog, but a colder temperatures so that it is composed of ice particles instead of water droplets.
Frost smoke
A region of reverse flow immediately downwind of an obstacle or mountain where the surface wind is opposite to the prevailing wind direction upstream of the obstacle.
Cavity
A sea surface wave that has become too steep to be stable and that breaks on the shore or in the open ocean.
Breaker
A severe thunderstorm with vivid lightning and violent squalls coming from land off the West coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica in Central America.
Chubasco
A sky with considerable cirrocumulus clouds is popularly called a/an:
mackerel sky
A statement of the actual values of meteorological elements observed at a specified place and time.
Weather report
A storm characterized by a fall of freezing liquid precipitation.
ice storm
A strong, dusty, or sandy northwesterly wind that blows seaward along the south coast of Arabia.
Belat
A thermometer scale calibrated in 100 scale divisions wherein the boiling point of water is at 100 degrees and freezing point is at 0 degrees.
Centigrade scale
A thermometer scale calibrated in 180 scale divisions wherein the boiling point of water is at 212 degrees and freezing point is at 32 degrees.
Fahrenheit scale
A thermometer scale wherein Absolute zero temperature is placed at -273.16 degrees Celsius
Kelvin scale
A transparent, colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid found near the surface of the earth is:
water
A typhoon with a maximum sustained surface winds of 130 knots or greater.
supertyphoon
A wave generated during a storm, usually taken to refer to a wave of great height.
Storm wave
A wave that increases linearly with time for a fixed interval, returns abruptly to the original level, and repeats the process periodically thus producing a shape resembling the teeth of a saw.
Sawtooth wave
A wind speed of 17 to 21 knots is described as:
fresh breeze
Advice to shipping companies and ship captains of the best routes to be taken between any two ports by a particular ship.
Ship Routing
An apparent fog in the distance wherein no fog actually exists is called:
Fata Bromosa
An assessment of the future state of the atmosphere with respect to precipitation, clouds, winds and temperature.
Weather forecast
An avalanche of dry loose snow is called:
Dust avalanche
An unusual, frequently severe weather condition characterized by strong winds and dust-filled air over an extensive area.
Duststorm
Anautomatic, active, remote-sensing device for detecting the presence of clouds and meaures the height of their bases.
Ceilometer
Any cyclonic-scale storm that is not a tropical cyclone, usually referring only to the migratory frontal cyclones of middle and high latitudes is called a/an:
Extratropical cyclone
Any deposit or coating of ice on an object caused by the impingement and freezing of liquid hydrometeors.
icing
Any development or strengthening of a cyclonic circulation in the atmosphere where previously it did not exist as well as to the intensification of existing cyclonic flow.
Cyclogenesis
Any product of condensation or depositionof atmospheric water vapor formed in the atmosphere or the earth’s surface is called a/an:
Hydrometeor
Any relatively flat piece of ice 20 m or more across. It may be composed of several fragments bonded together.
Floe
Any sea ice that has been drifting from its place of origin iscalled:
Drift ice
Any sea ice that is immobile due to its attachement to a coast, ususally extending offshore t about 20 meters isobath. Is called a/an:
Fast ice
Any winds with components from the East and generally moving in a westerly direction is termed as:
Easterlies
Any winds with components from the West and generally moving in an easterly direction is termed as:
Westerlies
Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga in Southern Mindanao normally averages:
1 tropical cyclone in 12 years
characterized by equal or constant pressure with respect to either space or time.
isobaric
Disintegration of an ice cover on coastal waters, on land or river as a result of thermal and mechanical processes is called:
Ice breakup
Having the sense of rotation about the local vertical and the same as that of the Earth’s rotation; that is’ if viewed from above, counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
Cyclonic
Ice on a body of water that remains as an unbroken surface when the water level drops so that a cavity is formed between the water surface and the ice.
Shell ice
If an air mass is warm relative to the surface, the lower portion of the air mass is ______, tending to remain close to the surface which is a stble air.
cooled
If the air is cold relativeto the surface, the lower portion of the air mass will be _____, resulting in an unstable air.
heated
If you are located within a stationary high pressure area and your aneroid barometer is falling steadily, it means _____.
a decrease in the intensity of the pressure system
In an ocean area where waves are generated by a wind having a constant direction and speed, this length or distance is measured in the direction of the wind in which the ocean waves are generated.
Fetch