midterm 2 part 2 Flashcards
Waters general characteristics that enable to store great quantities of heat
- It’s high heat capacity
- Transparent to light
- Mixes vertically
Attenuated
Light that is lost by a combination of absorption and scattering
Absorption
Water molecules absorb some light energy
Most light energy is absorbed by various particles in the water and dissolved materials
Lakes have a lot of dissolved materials making them a yellow brown colour, therefore, less light penetrates to the bottom
Scattered
Reflects off of particles, including air bubbles and dissolved materials
Beer’s Law:
The rate of light attenuation is constant
* Every meter a certain percentage is lost
Extinction coefficient:
Constant rate light is lost, ranges from 0 to 1.0
Diffuse attenuation coefficient:
Represented by k, function of the degree to which the water is clouded with dirt and other foreign materials
Diffuse attenuation coefficient: High k means
- Lots of dissolved materials
* Often the case for coastal waters
* The faster light disappears with depth
Electromagnetic spectrum:
ranges of wavelength from cosmic rays to radio waves, includes viable light
Visible light: 400-700nm
Red 700nm, Purple 400nm
Selective attenuation:
Longer wavelengths (red, 700nm) as the penetrate into the ocean
* Are absorbed before they penetrate very deep
* Why the sea is blue to blue-green colour as shorter wavelets are less attenuation the least
Air Composition:
- Nitogene 78%
- Oxygene 21%
- Other trace gases 1%
- Water vapour: Up to 4%
warmer air is ___ dense than cold hair
less, therefore it rises
Dew point:
air has become saturated with water vapour and can not hold any more
warm air can hold ___ water vapour
more, therefore becomes less dense, and rises
humid air is ____ dense
less dense
High pressure allows the air to hold ___ water vapour
more
Hot, humid, pressured air is
not dense at all
Coriolis effect
- Moving objects in the Northern hemisphere experience a deflection to the right of their line of direction
- Moving objects in the Southern hemisphere experience a deflection to the left of their line of direction
- Does not occur on the Equator
- Northern Hemisphere: Water spins clockwise
- Southern Hemisphere: Water spins counterclockwise
Northern hemisphere water spins _____
clockwise
How much the object curves depends three factors
- How fast the object is moving
* Faster than the speed of earth are. Unnoticeable- How far the object travels
- Motions over short distances are unnoticeable
- The latitude at which the motion happens
Highest effect at the poles
- How far the object travels
- Magnitude of the Coriolis effect increases with ____
Latitude
- No effect at equator
* Highest effect at poles
Coriolis effect Trajectory we see depends on frame of reference. Space vs earth
- From space spear to move in a straight line (Real)
* From earth appears to move in an arc (Apparent)
Average atmospheric conditions are referred to as ________
“Ocean climate”. AC
_____ atmospheric conditions are referred to as “Ocean weather”.
Daily DW
The 3-cell model
Predicts climatic bands that change with latitude
* Polar Cell: 60-90 * Ferrel Cell: 30-60 * Hadley Cell: 0-30
- Three types of Surface winds
* Surface winds:
Move from areas of high pressure too low pressure
Polar Easterlies: Come from the east 60-90
Prevailing Westerlies: Come from the west30-60
Northeast/Southeast Trades: Come from the east 0-30
- Horse Latitudes:
Area where cold dry air sinks causing high pressure
* Occurs at 30 degrees North and South * Air is vert low in humidity, meaning these are areas of low cloudiness or precipitation * Worlds major deserts
Doldrums:
- Southeast trades and northeast trades meet at the equator
- Begin to rise vertically
- Water expands causing water vapour to condense and release rain
- Responsible for persistent bands of clouds around equator
- Low pressure:
- Air rushes in
* Deflected to the right
* Produces a Counterclockwise rotation
Northern hemisphere
High pressure air rushes ___, and is deflected to the ___ producing a _____ in the Northern hemisphere
out, right, clockwise
____-_____ Hurricane Scale
Staffir-Simpson
* Category go from 1-5, Five being the worst damage
* Winds
* Damage
* Strom Surge
- What happens after they are formed?
- To maintain or increase intensity, hurricanes require heat and moisture supplied from below
- Hurricanes eventually “run out of gas” in mid-latitudes.
- Hurricanes lose their supply of moist air over land.
- Hurricanes lose their supply of warm (> 26⁰C) air over colder, mid-latitude waters.
- Hurricanes are sheared apart by the jet stream
- Typhoons:
Western Northern Pacific
Tropical cyclones:
Indian Ocean and Southern Hemisphere
- Where are hurricanes formed?
- Not formed on the equator because no Coriolis effect
- Not formed South of the equator because waters are not hot enough
- Warmest waters in the Atlantic Ocean just north of the equator
- Conditions for Hurricane to form
- Surface waters must be above temperatures of 26 degrees
- Must extend from the surface to a depth of about 80m
- Must be a localized area of low-pressure
- Preexisting winds over the area of the storm formation must come from the same direction at similar speeds at all altitudes
- How are hurricanes formed?
- Air is heated and rises creating a low pressure
- More air enter to fill the low pressure, it too is heated and rises
- As air rises it take moisture along with it
- The air decompress and cools therefore releases the moisture as precipitation
- Precipitation releases latent heat of condensation to atmosphere.
- Storm grows large enough for rotation to occur.
- Cooled air descends in the centre of the storm called the eye.
- Cooled air descends on the margins
