Unit 4: What is weather and climate? Flashcards
What are the weather instruments?
- Thermometer (portable).
- Stevenson screen (must be in an open area, must be above the ground, while colour to reflect sun radiation, has roof to block rain, snow and hail, made of wood as a heat insulator).
- Barograph or barometer (to measure air pressure).
- Campbell stokes sunshine recorder (to measure the intensity of sunlight).
- Rain gauge (to measure rainfall).
What is meteorology?
Meteorology is the science dealing with the atmosphere and its phenomena, including both weather and climate.
What is meteorology?
Meteorology is the science dealing with the atmosphere and its phenomena, including both weather and climate.
What is meteorologist?
A person who studies meteorological phenomena.
Where can weather data be collected?
Ground stations, weather buoys, ships, airplanes and satellites.
What are the types of weather satellites?
Geostationary satellites (built for collecting and streaming remote sensing satellite data).
What do satellite pictures show?
Rainfall and ice cap.
What is a weather forecast?
It is an analysis of a state of the weather of an area with the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for given places and time.
How do you use a weather forecast?
Going outside, I should decide whether to wear a raincoat.
Explain why weather forecast are particularly important to farmers, pilot and aircraft.
Farmers needs to control the pests and crops and so there is a lesser chance of disease spreading.
What is weather?
The state of the atmosphere, day-to-day condition of the atmosphere and refers to short term changes in the atmosphere.
What is climate?
The average weather over long period of time in a specific area and different weather have different climates such as its addictive pattern of temperature, rainfalls and more.
Where do we get sunlight?
- Earth’s curvature.
- Distance.
- Sunlight strikes most directly.
- Low angle of incoming sunlight.
The earth is unevenly heated.
What is the troposphere?
- Bottom layer of the atmosphere.
- Most of earth’s weather occurs here.
- Eight miles thick.
- Supersonic aircraft fly in this layer.
What are the types of rainfall?
- Relief rainfall (air is forced to rise when it meets a range of hills. This air cools, and forms condensation. The air continues to rise and clouds form. Rain eventually falls on the mountains. As the air descends the other side of the mountains, it warms up and can hold more water vapour. This area of the mountains is drier and is called the rain shadow.)
- Convectional rainfall (the ground is heated by the sun, causing moisture to evaporate and rise. The air rises rapidly and the water vapour condenses to form clouds. Updraughts of warm air push the water droplets high and suspend them there. Sometimes they are carried so high they freeze and form hail. Eventually large water droplets fall as heavy rain, often with thunder and lightning. This often results in spells of sunshine followed by heavy showers.
- Frontal rainfall (a warm air mass meets a cold air mass. The warm, less dense air is pushed up over the cold, dense air, to create a front. The warm, less dense, air cools. The water vapour condenses into droplets and eventually produces rain.
