Unit 1 Flashcards
Which of the following is not a variable gas?
A. Carbon Dioxide
B. Oxygen
C. Ozone
D. Water vapor
B
Why is the top of the troposphere colder than the bottom?
The air is heated by the surface
Why is the top of the stratosphere warmer than the bottom?
Because ozone absorbs solar energy
Which temperature scale initiates with absolute zero?
Kelvin
Of the permanent gases, which is the most abundant and comprises approximately 78 percent of the atmosphere by volume?
Nitrogen
Which of the following gases is removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis?
Carbon dioxide
Why has carbon dioxide increased by about 1.8 ppm per year since measurements began? (Choose all that apply)
A. Anthropogenic combustion of fossil fuels
B. Increased photosynthesis
C. Deforestation
A, C
What causes the depletion of the beneficial ozone in the stratosphere?
CFCs
Which of the following is not an element of the scientific method?
A. Hypothesis
B. Analysis
C. Redirection
D. Prediction
C
The temperature is lowest here:
A. Mesopause
B. Stratopause
C. Tropopause
D. Stratosphere
A
The “stratosphere” warms because of:
The interaction of ozone and ultraviolet light
What is the distance from one wave crest to the next wave crest?
Wavelength
Which wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum are visible to the human eye?
0.4 - 0.7 microns
At what wavelength does the sun emit the most radiation?
0.5 microns
At what wavelength does Earth emit the most radiation?
10 microns
During which month are the Sun’s rays directly overhead at the equator?
March and September
When does the subsolar point coincide with 23.5 degrees N?
June
What is the total daily radiation receipt at a location dependent upon?
Latitude and day length
The standard unit of energy in the international system (SI) is:
Joule
During which month does perihelion occur?
January
Earth’s peak emission of 10 micrometers can be quantified using which radiation law?
Wien’s Law
What are three main mechanisms for heat transfer between Earth’s atmosphere and surface?
Conduction, convection, and radiation
Which type of scattering is caused by small gas molecules and affects shorter wavelengths?
Rayleigh
Which type of scattering is caused by larger aerosols and affects longer wavelengths?
Mie
How much of the incoming solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere actually reaches the surface of Earth?
54 percent
How much of the incoming solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere is absorbed by the atmosphere?
23 percent
What is the total planetary albedo?
30 percent
What is the process whereby radiation making contact with the surface is redirected away without being altered?
Reflection
What is the term for the 8- to 12-micrometer region of Earth’s emission curve?
Atmospheric window
The specific heat of water is how much greater than that of land?
Five times
What is the term for the effect of an inland location that experiences greater temperature extremes?
Continentality
How is the annual temperature range calculated?
Subtract the highest and lowest monthly mean temperatures
How is the daily mean temperature calculated?
Average the minimum and the maximum temperature for a day.
What is the source of the vast majority of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere?
Fuel combustion
Which of these are associated with episodes of severe air pollution?
A. High temperatures
B. Low temperatures
C. Temperature inversions
D. High wind speeds
C
If the wind slowed to 5 m/s, what would the pollution do?
Increase
Urban buildings cause the overall albedo to do what?
Decrease
Why has the air quality in Pittsburgh improved?
Because of factory and steel mill closures.
In terms of weather, what is Vancouver, Canda.
An urban heat island
Which of these contributes to urban heat islands?
A. High albedo
B. Sea breeze
C. Land breeze
D. Tall buildings
D
What is air pollution most readily disperesed by?
High winds
What is the United States’s largest source of carbon monoxide?
Automobiles
What factor(s) contribute(s) to the bad air quality in Los Angeles?
Location, large number of automobiles, and cloud-free conditions during mid-day
In which epoch are we living?
Holocene
How long ago did the latest interglacial begin?
15,000 years
The temperature trends indicate that the temperatures are doing which of the following?
A. Increasing
B. Decreasing
C. Remaining stable
D. Showing no trend
A
What is the feedback between ice and albedo an example of?
Positive feedback
Which of these refers to changes in the tilt of Earth’s axis?
A. Obliquity
B. Precession
C. Eccentricity
D. Palynology
A
What is the anthropogenic greenhouse gas that has been the subject of intense scientific scrutiny and political controversy?
Carbon dioxide
What is most of the rise in global temperatures since the mid-twentieth century very likely due to?
Anthropogenic greenhouse gases
Which of the following methods is used for determining past climates?
A. Oceanic deposits
B. Remnant landforms
C. Ice cores
D. All of the above
D
___ is the state of the atmosphere at a particular moment.
Weather
___ is the statistics (average and variability) of weather.
Climate
The ___ is a mixture of gas molecules, small suspended particles of solid and liquid, and falling precipitation.
Atmosphere
___ is the study of atmosphere and the processes (such as cloud formation, lightning, and wind movement) that cause what we refer to as the “weather.”
Meteorology
___ concerns itself with the same elements of the atmosphere that meteorology does, but on a different time scale. ___ relies on averages taken over a number of years in orderto gauge typical atmospheric conditions for locations across Earth’s surface.
Climatology
___ gases are found everywhere in nearly the same proportion, whereas ___ gases are those whose distribution in the atmosphere is uneven in both time and space.
Permanent; variable
Which is the most abundant of the variable gases?
Water vapor
What is the process by which green plants convert light energy to chemical energy.
Photosynthesis
Small solid particles and liquid droplets in the air are collectively known as ___.
aerosols
The ___ of any substance is the amount of mass of the substance contained in a unit of volume.
Density
Name the four layers of the atmosphere from lowest to highest altitude.
Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere
At the top of the troposphere, a transition zone called the ___ marks the level at which temperature ceases to decrease with height.
Tropopause
Situations where temperature increases with height are known as…
inversions
Within the stratosphere is the ___, a zone of increased ozone concentrations at altitudes between 20 and 30 km.m
ozone layer
___ is a process in which intense ultraviolet solar radiation is absorbed by O2, splitting the molecule into its constituent atoms (O + O).
Photodissociation
An additional layer, called the ___, extends from the upper mesosphere into the thermosphere and contains large numbers of electrically charged particles called ions.
ionosphere
___ indicates the amount of water vapor present relative to the maximum possible.
Relative humidity
The percentage of insolation reflected by an object or substance is called its…
albedo
When light strikes a mirror, it is reflected back as a beam of equal intensity in a manner known as…
spectacular reflection
When a beam is reflected from an object as a larger number of weaker rays traveling in many different directions, it is called ___ or ___.
diffuse reflection, scattering
Scattering agents smaller than about one-tenth the wavelength of incoming radiation disperse radiation in a manner known as…
Rayleigh scattering
Because of the absence of preference for any particular wavelength, scattering by clouds is sometimes called…
nonselective scattering
