Test 1 Flashcards
What is science?
A body of knowledge about the natural world.
What questions does science answer?
How does nature work? How did nature get to be the way it is?
What are the steps of the scientific method?
1) Make observation 2) Formulate a hypothesis, 3) Perform an experiment 4) Collect data, 5) Draw conclusions
What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess based on background knowledge of something. A logical explanation of an observation or a few observations. Is testable
What is a Theory?
A logical explanation of a series or many observations that have been extensively tested
A theory is much _____ in nature than a hypothesis.
broader
What is the Bergeron Process?
The process that generates much of the precipitation in the middle latitudes.
What two processes does the Bergeron Process rely on?
Supercooling and Supersaturation
How big must a cloud droplet grow for precipitation for form?
They must grow roughly one million times in volume
Water in the liquid state below 0*C is referred to as what?
Supercooled
How big are cloud droplets?
Under 20 micromillimeters
When cool air moves over warm water, this produces what?
Steam Fog
When front wedging occurs and lifts warm air containing rain, while the cold air below is near it’s dew point, this produces what?
Frontal Fog
When warm, moist air moves over a cold surface, this produces what?
Advection fog
On cool, clear, calm nights, when earth’s surface cools rapidly by radiation, _____ forms.
Radiation Fog
What is fog defined as?
a cloud with it’s base at or very near the ground.
What 3 types of clouds are found above 6000 meters?
Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus
What are the two types of middle clouds?
Altocumulus and Altostratus
What types of clouds are considered “low clouds” below 2000 meters?
Stratocumulus, Stratus, and Nimbostratus
What are the two types of clouds of vertical development?
Cumulus and Cumulonimbus
What type of cloud is described as “thin, delicate, fibrous, ice crystal clouds”?
Cirrus
What type of cloud is described as “Thin, white, ice-crystal clouds in the form of ripples, waves, or globular masses all in a row?”
Cirrocumulus
What type of clouds are described as “Thin sheet of white, ice-crystal clouds that may give the sky a milky look”
Cirrostratus
What type of cloud is described as “white to gray clouds often composed of separate globules”
Altocumulus
What type of cloud is described as “stratified veil of clouds that are generally thin and may produce very light precipitation”?
Alsostratus
What type of clouds are described as “Soft, gray clouds in globular patches or rolls. Rolls may join together to make a continuous cloud”
Statocumulus
What type of cloud is described as “Low Uniform layer resembling fog but not resting on the ground. May produce drizzle”
Stratus
What type of cloud is described as an “amorphous layer of dark gray clouds. One of the chief precipitation-producing clouds”
Nimbostratus
What is described as “Dense, billowy clouds often characterized by flat bases”
Cumulus
What is described as “Towering cloud sometimes spreading out on top to form an “anvil head”?
Cumulonimbus
What is an object that makes a very good condensation nuclei because it absorbs water?
Hygroscopic nuclei
On a dreary, drizzly day, what kind of air has been forced aloft?
stable
Unstable air generates what kind of weather?
Thunderstorms
When the temperature in a layer of air actually increases with altitude, this is called a _____-
Temperature inversion
What are the 4 mechanisms that force air to rise?
Orographic lifting, Frontal wedging, Convergence, Localized convective lifting
What happens in Orographic lifting?
Air is forced to rise over a mountainous barrier
When air is allowed to expand, it _____
cools
When air is compressed, it _____
warms
When heat is neither added nor subtracted, but temperature changes, this is called _____
an adiabatic temperature change
When small cloud droplets are suspended in air, and collide with other droplets and grow, increasing in velocity, flattens into a donut, and break into smaller drops as rain, this is called what?
The collision-coalescence process
Raindrops can grow to a maximum size of ____
5 mm
What is a scientific law?
A simple description/statement or equation that describes a behavior in nature
A scientific law is not tested, but _____
measured or observed repeatedly
What are the 4 earth sciences?
Meteorology, Geology, Astronomy, Oceanography
What is the atmosphere?
A thin envelope of gases around the earth, held to the surface by gravity
What are the 3 big gases in the atmosphere?
Nitrogen, oxygen, argon
What makes up 99% of the atmosphere?
Nitrogen and oxygen
All other gases make up what percentage of the atmosphere?
.1%
What are the permanent gases? (meaning the concentration doesn’t change over time)
The big 3, and the noble gases
What are the noble gases?
neon, helium, hydrogen, xenon
What are the variable gases in the atmosphere?
H2O vapor, CO2, CH4, N2O, O3, CFCs
What is the #1 greenhouse gas?
Water vapor
What are the 4 thermal layers of the atmosphere?
Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere
What are the two phenomena of the troposphere?
Weather and greenhouse effect
What is the phenomena of the stratosphere?
Ozone layer
What is the phenomenon of the mesosphere?
meteors burn up
What is the phenomenon of the thermosphere?
the auroras
What is a pause in the atmosphere?
Where the temperature change stabilizes before switching directions
What are the two non-thermal layers of the atmosphere?
Exosphere and Ionosphere
Where is the exosphere located?
Top of the thermosphere
Where is the ionosphere located?
Top of the mesosphere and the thermosphere
What is energy?
the ability to do work
What are the two types of energy?
Potential energy and kinetic energy
What is the sun composed of?
H2 and He
What is the surface temperature of the sun?
10,000* F
The sun uses nuclear fusion. What is it?
H+H –>He+energy+neutrons
When the sun consumes all it’s hydrogen, it will begin consuming what?
Helium
