XV. Basic Concepts Flashcards
It is the lowermost layer of the atmosphere. The temperature here decreases with an increase in altitude. It is in this layer that essentially all important weather phenomena occur.
Troposphere
The term used to describe the temperature decrease in the troposphere.
Environmental lapse rate
It is the average value of Environmental lapse rate.
6.5°C per kilometer
It is an instrument package that is attached to a balloon and transmits data by radio as it ascends through the atmosphere.
Radiosonde
These are found aloft in tropics and not at the poles.
Lowest tropospheric temperatures
It is the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere
Tropopause
It is the second layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere. The temperature at first remains nearly constant to a height of about 20 kilometers before it begins a sharp increase that continues until the stratopause is encountered.
Stratosphere
This is the layer where ozone is located.
Stratosphere
It is the layer in the stratosphere that absorbs a portion of the radiation from the sun, preventing it from reaching the planet’s surface.
Ozone layer
It is the height of Ozone layer above the Earth’s surface.
15-30km
It is the boundary between the stratosphere and mesosphere.
Stratopause
It is the 3rd layer above the Earth’s surface. The temperatures again decrease with height until at the mesopause, some 80 kilometers above the surface.
Mesosphere
It is the average temperature of Mesosphere.
-90°C (-130°F)
It is the boundary between mesosphere and thermosphere. The coldest temperatures anywhere in the atmosphere occur at this boundary.
Mesopause
It is the fourth layer extends outward from the mesopause and has no well-defined upper limit. It is a layer that contains only a tiny fraction of the atmosphere’s mass. The temperatures again increase, due to the absorption of very shortwave, high-energy solar radiation by atoms of oxygen and nitrogen.
Thermosphere
The temperatures in Thermosphere may rise to these extremely high value.
More than 1000°C (1800°F)
It extendes from Earth’s surface to an altitude of about 80 kilometers (50 miles). The makeup of the air in this layer is uniform in terms of the proportions of its component gases.
Homosphere
It is the very thin atmosphere above 80 kilometers is not uniform, because it has a heterogeneous composition. Here the gases are arranged into four roughly spherical shells, each with a distinctive composition. Lowest layer to highest layer composition: molecular nitrogen (N2) < Oxygen (O) < Helium (He) < Hydrogen (H).
Heterosphere
It is the heaviest gas in the atmosphere, that’s why it was in the lowermost layer of the heterosphere.
Molecular Nitrogen (N2)
It is the lightest gas, that’s why it is the outermost/highest layer.
Hydrogen (H)
It is an electrically charged layer. It is located in the altitude range between 80 to 400 kilometers. It coincides with the lower portions of the thermosphere and heterosphere. The molecules of nitrogen and atoms of oxygen are readily ionized as they absorb high-energy shortwave solar energy. Positively charged ions and negative electrons are most dense in the range of 80 to 400 kilometers, but they can occur as high as 1000 km and as low as 50 km.
Ionosphere
It is the layer where Auroras can be found.
Ionosphere
It is also called the Northern Lights.
Aurora borealis
It is also called the Southern Lights.
Aurora australis
It is the scientific study of the atmosphere.
Meteorology
It refers to the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place.
Weather
It is the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.
Climate
It was taken when the Apollo 8 astronauts orbited the Moon for the first time in December 1968.
Earthrise
They took the photo of Earthrise in December 1968.
Apollo 8
It was taken in December 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17 during the last manned lunar mission.
Blue Marble
They took the photo of the Blue Marble in December 1972
Apollo 17
It a common boundary where different parts of a system interact.
Interface
It is the spinning of Earth on its axis that produces the daily cycle of day and night.
Rotation
It refers to Earth’s movement in a slightly elliptical orbit around the Sun.
Revolution
It is the distance where the Earth is closest from the Sun
Perihelion
Each year, on this day, our planet is about 147.3 million km away from the Sun.
January 3
It is the distance where the Earth is farthest from the Sun.
Aphelion
Each year, on this day, Earth is about 152.1 million km away from the Sun.
July 4
It is the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
Plane of the ecliptic
The inclination of Earth from it’s plane of ecliptic.
Inclination of the axis
It is the value of Earth’s tilt.
23.5 degrees
“It is the first ““official”” day of summer (Northern Hemisphere). The vertical rays of the Sun strike 23 1/2° north latitude.”
Summer solstice
The day in the year that Summer solstice will occur.
June 21 or 22
It is the 23 1/2° north latitude located in Northern Hemisphere.
Tropic of Cancer
It is the first day of winter in Northern Hemisphere.
Winter solstice
The day in the year that Winter solstice will occur.
December 21 or 22
It occurs on September 22 or 23 in the Northern Hemisphere.
Autumnal (fall) equinox
It occurs on march 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere.
Spring (vernal) equinox
It is the boundary separating the dark half of Earth from the lighted half
Circle of illumination
It is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules in a substance.
Temperature
It is the energy absorbed by the escaping water vapor molecules
Latent heat
It is the heat we can feel and measure with a thermometer
Sensible heat
It is the annual balance of incoming and outgoing radiation
Heat budget
It is a natural phenomenon that makes Earth habitable.
Greenhouse effect
These clouds are high, white, and thin. They form delicate veil-like patches or wisplike strands and often have a feathery appearance.
Cirrus
They consist of globular cloud masses that are often described as cottonlike in appearance. Normally, cumulus clouds exhibit a flat base and appear as rising domes or towers.
Cumulus
They are best described as sheets or layers (strata) that cover much or all of the sky. Although there may be minor breaks, there are no distinct individual cloud units.
Stratus
“Thin, delicate, fibrous, ice-crystal clouds. Sometimes appear as hooked filaments called ““mares’ tails”” or cirrus uncinus.”
Cirrus
Thin sheet of white, ice-crystal clouds that may give the sky a milky look. Sometimes produce halos around the Sun and Moon.
Cirrostratus
“Thin, white, ice-crystal clouds. In the form of ripples or waves, or globular masses all in a row. May produce a ““mackerel sky.”” Least common of high clouds.”
Cirrocumulus
“White to gray clouds, often made up of separate globules; ““sheepback”” clouds”
Altocumulus
“Stratified veil of clouds that is generally thin and may produce very light precipitation. When thin, the Sun or Moon may be visible as a ““bright spot,”” but no halos are produced.”
Altostratus
Low uniform layer resembling fog but not resting on the ground. May produce drizzle.
Stratus
Soft, gray clouds in globular patches or rolls. Rolls may join together to make a continuous cloud.
Stratocumulus
Amorphous layer of dark gray clouds. One of the primary precipitation producing clouds.
Nimbostratus
Dense, billowy clouds often characterized by flat bases. May occur as isolated clouds or closely packed.
Cumulus
“These are cumuliform clouds with little vertical extent, common in the summer, that are often referred to as ““fair weather cumulus”””
Cumulus humilis
It is a low to middle level cloud with some vertical extent of the genus cumulus, larger in vertical development than Cumulus humilis.
Cumulus mediocris
When the top of the cumulus resembles the head of a cauliflower, it is called cumulus congestus or towering cumulus.
Cumulus congestus
“Towering cloud, sometimes spreading out on top to form an ““anvil head.”” Associated with heavy rainfall, thunder, lightning, hail, and tornadoes”
Cumulonimbus
It is a cloud with its base at or very near the ground.
Fog
These are clouds above 6000 meters.
High clouds
These are clouds 2000-6000 meters high.
Middle clouds
These are clouds below 2000 meters high.
Low clouds
Generally produced by nimbostratus or cumulonimbus clouds. When heavy, size can be highly variable from one place to another. (0.5-5 mm)
Rain
Small, uniform droplets that fall from stratus clouds, generally for several hours. (<0.5 mm)
Drizzle
Droplets large enough to be felt on the face when air is moving 1 meter/second. Associated with stratus clouds. (0.005-0.05 mm)
Mist
Small, spherical to lumpy ice particles that form when raindrops freeze while falling through a layer of subfreezing air. Because the ice particles are small, any damage is generally minor. It can make travel hazardous. (0.5-5 mm)
Sleet
Produced when supercooled raindrops freeze on contact with solid objects. It can form a thick coating of ice that has sufficient weight to seriously damage trees and power lines. (Layers 1 mm-2 cm thick)
Freezing Rain (Glaze)
Deposits usually consisting of ice feathers that point into the wind. These delicate frostlike accumulations form as supercooled cloud or fog droplets encounter objects and freeze on contact. (Variable accumulations)
Rime
The crystalline nature of snow allows it to assume many shapes, including six-sided crystals, plates, and needles. Produced in supercooled clouds where water vapor is deposited as ice crystals that remain frozen during their descent. (1 mm-2 cm)
Snow
Precipitation in the form of hard, rounded pellets or irregular lumps of ice. Produced in large convective, cumulonimbus clouds, where frozen ice particles and supercooled water coexist. (5-10 cm or larger)
Hail
”"”Soft hail”” that forms as rime collects on snow crystals to produce irregular masses of ““soft”” ice. Because these particles are softer than hailstones, they normally flatten out upon impact. (2-5 mm)”
Graupel
These are zones between the equator and roughly 30° latitude north and south. These are the low-latitude overturning circulations that have air rising at the equator and air sinking at roughly 30° latitude.
Hadley Cell
These are regions located at about 30 degrees north and south of the equator. These latitudes are characterized by calm winds and little precipitation. The horse latitudes are located at about 30 degrees north and south of the equator.
Horse latitudes
“These are the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth’s equatorial region. These are also called ““Easterlies”””
Trade winds
It is the low-pressure zone. This region of ascending moist, hot air is marked by abundant precipitation. It is visible as a band of clouds near the equator.
Doldrums, equatorial low or Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
It is the circulation between 30° and 60° latitude, both Northern and Southern Hemisphere. It is the average motion of air in the mid-latitudes.
Ferrel Cell
These are prevailing winds that blow from the west at midlatitudes.
Westerlies
These are relatively narrow bands of strong wind in the upper levels of the atmosphere.
Jet streams
It is the smallest and weakest cell. It extend from between 60 and 70 degrees, both Northern and Southern Hemisphere, to the poles.
Polar Cell
These are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow around the high-pressure areas of the polar highs at the North and South Poles.
Polar eaterlies
These are the high-pressure zones. In these zones, a subsiding air column produces weather that is normally warm and dry. It is located in the belts about 20° to 35° on either side of the equator, where the westerlies and trade winds originate and go their separate ways.
Subtropical highs
It is a low-pressure region is situated at about 50° to 60° latitude, in a position corresponding to the polar front. It is a low-pressure convergence zone where the polar easterlies and the westerlies clash. This zone is responsible for much of the stormy weather in the middle latitudes, particularly in the winter.
Subpolar low
These are areas of high atmospheric pressure around the north and south poles. It exhibit high surface pressure mainly because of surface cooling.
Polar highs
It refers to a particular wind system that reverses its direction twice each year geostrophic wind. It is the wind that will be blowing parallel to the isobars, when Coriolis force is balanced by the pressure gradient force.
Monsoon
It is the boundary between the polar cell and the Ferrel cell around the 60° latitude in each hemisphere.
Polar front
“It is a belt of powerful upper-level winds that sits atop the polar front. It is also known as ““midlatitude jet stream”””
Polar jet stream
It is a belt of strong upper-level winds lying above regions of subtropical high pressure. It is a semi permanent jet over the subtropics.
Subtropical jet stream
It is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
El Niño
It refers to the large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
La Niña
These are tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere.
Aerosols
It is amixture of many discrete gases, of which nitrogen and oxygen are most abundant, in which varying quantities of tiny solid and liquid particles are suspended.
Air
It is the force exerted by the weight of a column of air above a given point.
Air pressure
It is the reflectivity of a substance, usually expressed as a percentage of the incident radiation reflected.
Albedo
It is a large cell of low pressure centered over the Aleutian Islands of the North Pacific during the winter.
Aleutian Low
It is a violent and extremely cold wind, laden with dry snow picked up from the ground
Blizzard
The discontinuity at the forward edge of an advancing cold air mass that is displacing warmer air in its path.
Cold Front
It is a bright, whitish disk centered on the Moon or Sun that results from diffraction when the objects are veiled by a thin cloud layer.
Corona
It is an area of low atmospheric pressure characterized by rotating and converging winds and ascending air.
Cyclone
It is the separation of colors by refraction.
Dispersion
It is a large cell of low pressure centered over Iceland and southern Greenland in the North Atlantic during the winter.
Icelandic Low
It is the flow of cold, dense air downslope under the influence of gravity; the direction of this wind’s flow is controlled largely by topography.
Katabatic Wind
It is an optical effect of the atmosphere caused by refraction in which the image of an object appears displaced from its true position.
Mirage
It is the permanent freezing of the subsoil in tundra regions.
Permafrost
It is a luminous arc formed by the refraction and reflection of light in drops of water.
Rainbow
It is a dry area on the lee side of a mountainrange.
Rain Shadow Desert
These are shafts of light caused by reflection from ice crystals that extend upward or, less commonly, downward from the Sun when the Sun is near the horizon.
Sun Pillar
It is the northern coniferous forest; also a name applied to the subarctic climate.
Taiga
It is the sound emitted by rapidly expanding gases along the channel of a lightning discharge.
Thunder
It is a violently rotating column of air attended by a funnelshaped or tubular cloud extending downward from a cumulonimbus cloud.
Tornado
It is the release of water vapor to the atmosphere by plants.
Transpiration
The parallel of latitude, 23 1/2° north latitude, marking the northern limit of the Sun’s vertical rays.
Tropic of Cancer
The parallel of latitude, 23 1/2° south latitude, marking the southern limit of the Sun’s vertical rays.
Tropic of Capricorn
It is a luxuriant broadleaf evergreen forest; also the name given the climate associated with this vegetation.
Tropical Rain Forest
It is a climate found almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere and at high altitudes in many mountainous regions. It is a treeless climatic realm of sedges, grasses, mosses, and lichens dominated by a long, bitterly cold winter.
Tundra
It is the discontinuity at the forward edge of an advancing warm air mass that displaces cooler air in its path.
Warm Front
It is the air flowing horizontally with respect to Earth’s surface.
Wind
