Test Quesitons Flashcards
What is the Coriolis Effect?
The Coriolis effect describes the difference between the speed the earth spins at the poles vs the equator.
What is a convection current, and what do these currents have to do with weather and climate?
A convection current describes the effect that takes place when hot air rises and then cools, and because cool air is denser, it goes down. This cycle repeats itself until the area is evenly heated. This has to do with weather and climate in two possible ways: in the ocean, effecting ocean currents, or making clouds when the warm air rises and take moisture with it.
How are hurricanes formed?
Hurricanes occur when a significant amount of warm water vapor moves up, and low pressure cells at the earths surface cause large storms to start. The storms create stormclouds, and when the water falls to the surface, large convective cells form. The air mass then is forced to spin in response to the Coriolis effect.
Explains why it gets colder with elevation.
The farther away from the surface of the earth that you get, the density of air molecules decreases. The less dense the air molecules are, the less heat it can hold. This causes areas with higher elevations to be colder.
Explain the difference with each form of precipitation (there are 5).
Rain is the liquid form of precipitation.
Snow is the frozen form of precipitation, and it happens when the weather is less than 32 degrees. It freezes into ice crystals.
Sleet starts as rain, but the air below the cloud is less than 32 degrees, so the rain freezes into sleet.
Hail is typically associated with thunderstorms. It occurs inside the cloud when water vapor condenses around small prices of debris, and then freezes inside the cloud. It then falls to the ground as hail balls.
Freezing rain starts as normal rain, but the freezing temperatures on the ground cause it to freeze into a glaze on contact with the ground.
What is evaporation, transpiration, and sublimation?
Evaporation is when a liquid substance becomes a gas.
Transpiration occurs when the water within plants is evaporated into the atmosphere.
Sublimation is ice and snow change (solids) change into water vapor (gas) without going through the liquid phase.
How does density change temperature?
Density effects temperature because the more tightly packed the air molecules are, the more heat they can hold. The less dense the air is, the less heat it can hold.
What are El Niño and La Niña?
El Niño is an unpredictable weather pattern that occurs every 3-7 years. It makes colder and wetter than normal weather patterns near the Pacific Ocean and drier and warmer (drought) weather patterns in Australia.
La Niña is the opposite of El Niño. It makes warmer and drier weather patterns near the Pacific Ocean, and colder and wetter temperatures in Australia.
Explain cold fronts and warm fronts.
Cold fronts occur when cold air meets warm air, and pushes warm air up.
Warm fronts occur when warm air meets cold air, and stretches over cold air.
What is the difference between climate and weather?
Climate describes long-term weather patterns for a certain area.
Weather describes short-term weather pattens for a certain area.
How do high pressure and low pressure systems effect weather?
Low pressure weather systems are usually unstable and have bad weather.
High pressure weather systems are usually very stable and have nice and sunny weather.
