%Weather Forecasts And Climate Flashcards
What do barometers measure?
Barometers measure air pressure.
What do thermometers measure?
Thermometers measure temperature.
What do psychrometers measure?
Psychrometers measure relative humidity.
What do anemometers measure?
Anemometers measure wind speed.
What is a surface report?
A surface report describes a set of weather measurements made on Earth’s surface.
What are upper-air reports?
An upper-air report describes wind, temperature, and humidity conditions above Earth’s surface.
What are weather variables(wind, percipitation, humidity, etc) measured by?
Weather variables are measured by a weather station—a collection of instruments that report temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, and wind speed and direction.
What are earth’s atmospheric conditions(upper-air report) measured by?
Atmospheric conditions are measured by a radiosonde, a package of weather instruments carried many kilometers above the ground by a weather balloon. Radiosonde reports are made twice a day simultaneously at hundreds of locations around the world.
What is a visible light satellite image?
A visible light image shows white clouds over Earth.
What is an infrared light satellite image?
The infrared image shows infrared energy in false color. The infrared energy comes from Earth and is stored in the atmosphere as thermal energy. Monitoring infrared energy provides information about cloud height and atmospheric temperature.
What is a Doppler radio?
Doppler radar is a specialized type of radar that can detect precipitation as well as the movement of small particles, which can be used to approximate wind speed.
What is the station model?
The station model diagram displays data from many different weather measurements for a particular location. It uses numbers and symbols to display data and observations from surface reports and upper-air reports.
What are isobars?
Isobars are lines that connect all places on a map where pressure has the same value.
What are isotherms?
Isotherms are lines that connect places with the same temperature. Isotherms show which areas are warm and which are cold.
What are computer models?
Computer models are detailed computer programs that solve a set of complex mathematical formulas.
What is climate?
Climate is the long-term average weather conditions that occur in a particular region. A region’s climate depends on average temperature and precipitation, as well as how these variables change throughout the year.
What is a rain shadow?
An area of low rainfall on the downwind slope of a mountain is called a rain shadow.
Explain specific heat.
Specific heat is the amount (joules) of thermal energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kg of a material by 1°C. The specific heat of water is about six times higher than the specific heat of sand. This means the ocean water would have to absorb six times as much thermal energy to be the same temperature as the sand.
How was the world’s climate classifying method discovered?
In 1918 German scientist Wladimir Köppen developed a system for classifying the world’s many climates. Köppen classified a region’s climate by studying its temperature, precipitation, and native vegetation. Native vegetation is often limited to particular climate conditions.
What are the five climate types?
Polar Continental(where we live) Dry Tropical Mild
What is a microclimate?
A microclimate is a localized climate that is different from the climate of the larger area surrounding it.
