Midterm Review Flashcards
What are Spatial Patterns?
Patterns between systems (eg. climate regions and biomes).
What is Atmosphere?
the earth’s system of weather and climate.
What is Weather?
Atmospheric conditions at a given time and place.
What is Climate?
Weather that us expected based on the past 30 years of measurement.
What is described as a thin envelope surrounding our earth held by gravity and suspending particulates?
Atmosphere
What is the Earth’s Radius?
6,730 KM
What is matter?
Mass with volume
What is an Atom
The physical manifestation of an element
Which law dictates that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but can change phases?
The conservation of mass
What is a particulate?
A solid and liquid suspended in air
Oxygen makes up what percentage of our atmosphere?
21%
Nitrogen makes up what percentage of our atmosphere?
78%
Argon makes up what percentage of our atmosphere?
.9%
Ozone makes up how much of our atmosphere?
10 PPB
How much Ozone can be found in the stratosphere?
1,000 PPB
What does Ozone do in our atmosphere?
Act as foil to reflect heat and radiation
Carbon Dioxide makes up how much of our atmosphere?
400 PPM
Who started recording CO2 emissions in Mauna Loa, HI?
Charles Keeling
How much methane is in our atmosphere?
1800 PPB
Where does most atmospheric absorption take place?
Troposphere
What is the name of the point where the sun is directly overhead?
Subsolar Point
What is the name of the angle where the sun hits you at exactly 90 degrees
Noon Sun Angle
What is the name of the latitude of the subsolar point
Declination
What is Advection?
horizontal mixing
What causes season changes?
Change in noon sun angle, day length, and axial tilt.
What is the rate of vertical temperature decrease?
6.5 degrees Celcius per KM
What is the top of the troposphere called?
The Tropopause.
What is the top of the stratosphere called?
Stratopause.
What elevation are surface air temps taken at?
1.5-2 M above the surface
What are the factors that control surface temperature patterns?
Latitude, Land water heating difference, surface ocean currents, elevation, and cloudiness.
What phase of water has the most hydrogen bonds?
Solid
What phase of water has no hydrogen bonds 🤨
Vapor
What is the measure of vapor content in the air?
Humidity
What does Specific Humidity measure?
The amount of water in the air
What does Specific Saturated measure?
The maximum amount of water in the air
What does Dew Point measure?
The temperature at which air saturates
What is Relative Humanity?
How close the air is to being saturated in a percent
How do clouds form?
Condensation or deposition of vapor in the air
What is essential to clouds forming?
Saturated air (RH of 100)
How does air saturate?
air cooling to dew point
What is Diabatic Cooling
cooling due to loss of heat
What is Adiabatic Cooling?
cooling due to the expansion of air
What is the diabatic rate at which air cools?
1 Degree Celcius per 100 Meters
What is the Moist Adiabatic Rate rate at which air cools?
.6 degrees per 100 Meters
Why does air rise?
Orographic lifting, Convergant Lifting, Frontal Lifting, Convectional Lifting
What is Orographic lifting
wind hitting a topographic obstacle
What is Convergant Lifting?
Air converging on the same place causing it to go up
What is Frontal Lifting?
cold air masses advancing on warm are or vice versa.
What is Convectional Lifting?
Bubbles of Warm Air Rising
What do precipitation-producing clouds need?
Humid air, persistent lifting mechanism, and water vapor
What causes wind?
Horizontal pressure.
What is the weight of the atmosphere at sea level?
14.7 lbs per square inch
What a cyclone?
a circular area of low pressure
what is an anti-cyclone?
a circular area of high pressure
What is the Coriolis Effect?
The curving from the center to the edge of a spinning circle.
what direction will wind veer in the Northern Hemisphere?
Right
The Coriolis effect increases with what?
latitude and wind speed
Where is the Coriolis effect strongest?
T H E P O L E S
Where air is warmer, will air pressure be higher or lower?
lower
What are the winds that blow from the NE and SE toward the equator?
Trade Winds
What is the place where trade winds converge and rise?
The Intertropical convergence zone.
What circulates air from the equator to 30 degrees latitude?
Hadley Cells
What blow opposite of trade winds
Westerlies
What is the boundary above 60 degrees that separates warm and cold air?
polar front
what is the high-speed air wave that follows the polar front from west to east?
Polar Jet Stream