Temperature Flashcards
What is specific heat capacity?
The specific heat capacity of a substance is the heat required to raise the temperature of 1kg through 1°.
Approximately how much of the suns energy reaches the surface?
About half.
How is the atmosphere heated?
Through insolation and then terrestrial radiation.
Incoming radiation (insolation) is at too high a frequency to be absorbed by the atmosphere. Instead, the atmosphere is heated by the lower frequency energy emitted by the earth, known as terrestrial radiation.
What are the three main ways of heat transfer?
Radiation
Conduction
Convection
What is heat radiation?
The transfer of heat between bodies that are not in contact, without heating the intervening space. E.g. how the sun heats the earth.
What is heat conduction?
Transfer of heat between bodies in contact with each other, but without movement. This is how the ground transfers heat to the air that is in contact with it. Air is a very poor conductor of heat.
What is heat convection?
Transfer of heat by vertical movement. This is how heat is transferred within the atmosphere since air is a very poor conductor of heat.
What factors does the diurnal variation of temperature depend on?
Surface - Variation is greater over land than sea
Windspeed - Wind causes turbulence that spreads the cooling effect of the Earth through a greater depth of air.
Cloud - Reduces heat loss
What is the rate at which temperature drops with height known as?
Lapse Rate. (ISA 1.98°/1000ft)
In which layer does temperature drop with height?
Troposphere
What is the name of the phenomenon of temperature increasing with height?
Temperature Inversion
What name is given to an area of atmosphere that is equal temperature?
Isothermal layer
How is temperature measured?
Thermometer
What type of thermometer is used in meteorology?
Mercury thermometer
How does a thermometer work?
A hollow glass tube, with a reservoir at its base, contains mercury which expands and contracts inside the tube with changes in temperature.
