Meteorology Exam Earth Science

Where is the hottest air in the room?

At the ceiling

What processes are responsible for the amount of water in an aquarium decreasing with time? The outside of your beverage get wet?

Evaporation and condensation

What will happen when a cold air mass meets a warm air mass?

Warm air rises over the cool, itself cools down & drops its moisture

Seasonal differences on Earth are caused by what?

The tilt and curved surface of the earth from the sun

The Ideal Gas Law

PV = nRT

What is PV = nRT

Pressure x volume = moles of gas x constant x temperature

If you hold the volume constant & raise temperature what will happen?

Increased pressure

If you hold volume constant & increase pressure

Increased temperature 

Heating gas

expansion (molecules move faster)

Hot air rises, less density or molecules per volume

Cooling gas

sinks (molecules slow, more dense)

Heating water

evaporation (molecules escape)

sublimation

Ice to water vapor

Cooling

 condensation (clouds, precipitation)

adiabatic cooling

Air forced to rise cools

Water vapor

key in transfer of heat between water, atmosphere & land

Mechanisms of Heat Transfer: Conduction

transfer through direct contract

Mechanisms of Heat Transfer: Convection

transfer through circulation of gas, liquid, (fluid vs. solid) → convection cells

Mechanisms of Heat Transfer: Radiation

travels all directions, even in vacuum, photons moving

Mechanisms of Heat Transfer: Advection

wind, horizontally moving (replacement air driven by convection

Differential heating

• The curved surface of the Earth means a diffuse, elliptical “beam” falls on higher latitudes

• Equator with much more intense sunlight than poles

Latitude

tilt of the Earth means the sun is only directly overhead in middle band → (tropics)

Tropic of Cancer

summer solstice

Tropic of Capricorn

winter solstice

Equator

spring equinox & fall equinox

Arctic circle

land of midnight sun (polar)

Longest Daylight Hours

15 hours daylight & 9 hours darkness on brightest day

Shortest daylight hours

9 hours daylight & 15 hours darkness on darkest day

weather & climate

Differential heating & gas laws drive the circulation of the atmosphere

When is the most radiation

Midday

Maritime

moist (air from ocean) & mild (hi heat capacity of water

Continental

dry (moisture lost over land) & extreme (land holds heat poorly)

Mixing zones

 homosphere vs heterosphere = relatively lower layers vs dense, unmixed upper layers

Temperature zones: Troposphere

zone of weather (lowest), temperature drop

Temperature zones: Stratosphere

zone with protection ozone layer, temperature rise

Temperature zones: Mesosphere

cold, noctilucent clouds, meteors, temperature drop

Temperature zones: Thermosphere

warming, ionosphere (aurora), temperature rise

Temperature zones: Pauses

• steady temperature between spheres, no temp change

- (mesopause, stratopause, tropopause)

Which one of the following is NOT a MECHANISM of heat transfer?

Condensation

Which one of the following surfaces has the highest albedo?

Snow

In the Southern Hemisphere, the greatest number of daylight hours occurs on _____

December 21

The value of the normal lapse rate is ______ C per kilometer

6.5

The two principal atmospheric absorbers of terrestrial radiation (IR headed back out to outer space) are carbon dioxide and _______

Water vapor

Oxygen and ozone are efficient absorbers of incoming ______ radiation

Ultraviolet

Which form of radiation do we sense as heat?

Infrared

The annual temperature RANGE will be greatest for a place located ______

In the interior of a continent

Which one of the following is NOT generally considered a major element of weather and climate?

Solar wind

The temperature decrease with increasing altitude in the troposphere is called the _____ lapse rate

Environmental

Which one of the following forms of radiation has the longest wavelength?

Radio waves

On December 21 or 22, the vertical rays of the sun strike a latitude known as the ____ (that is, the sun is directly overhead at this latitude).

Tropic of Capricorn

The red and orange colors of sunsent and suntide are the result of ____ in the atmosphere

Dust

When water changes from one state to another, _____ heat is stored or released

Latent

On June 21 or 22, the vertical rays of the sun strike a latitude known as the _____ (that is the sun is directly overheard at this latitude)

Tropic of Cancer

Which is a necessary condition for condensation? and not necessary

surfaces, water vapor, saturation & dew-point temperature reached

NOT: High altitude

The temperature to which air would have to be cooled to reach saturation is called the ______ point.

Dew

The dry adiabatic rate is ______

1.0 °Celcius/100 meters

Which of the following is NOT a process that lifts air? AND WHAT DOES

• Divergence

• Does lift air: convergence, frontal wedging, orographic lifting

When air expands or contracts it will experience _____ temperature changes.

Adidabic

The process by which cool.cold air acts as a barrier over which warmer, less dense air rises is called ______

• Frontal wedging

The wet adiabatic rate of cooling is less than the dry rate because _____

Of the release of latent heat

Which form of precipitation is likely to occur when a layer of warm air (with temperatures above freezing) overlies/exists on top of a subfreezing (cold) layer near the ground?

Sleet

Weather-producing fronts are parts of the storm systems called _____

Multi-latitude cyclones

Which clouds are best described as sheets or layers that cover much or all of the sky?

Stratus

Which one of the following substances changes from one state of matter to another at the temperature and pressures experienced at Earth’s surface?

Water

Air that has reached its water vapor capacity is said to be ____

Saturated

The ratio of the air’s water vapor content to its capacity to hold water (at that same temperature) is a measure of the air’s ______

Relative humidity

When the environmental lapse rate (the change in temperature with increasing altitude for moist air) is less than the dry adiabatic rate (the change in temperature with increasing altitude for air without any moisture in it), a parcel of air will be ________

Stable

Which one of the following refers to the energy that is stored or released during a change of state of water?

Latent heat

The solid phase region of the graph is always found _____ of the graph

The upper left

The regions of the graph are separated by phase boundaries where

Two phases exist simultaneously

At the triple point

All three states of matter exist simultaneously

According to the animation and the laws of thermodynamics, the particles of a substance are _____ in all three phases

• In constant motion

The physical state of a substance at various temperature and pressure conditions is called the _______ of the substance

Phase

What pairs are correct?

• Solid phase: tightly packed particles, gaseous phase: widely spaced particles, liquid phase: particles sliding past each other

If the temperature is increased while pressure remains constant, the distance between the particles will

Increase

As the motion of the particle increases, the distance between the particles ___

Increases

What is incorrect?

• Gaseous phase: slow moving

he regions of the diagram represent

Solid, liquid, gas

Overall, the phase diagram shows the relationship between

Temperature, pressure, states of matter, molecular movement

When air is heated, what is it doing?

• rises and expands

The process of condensation

Releases heat

As one rises through the troposphere, temperature

Drops

The process of going from solid ice to water  vapor is called

Sublimation

The heat transfer mechanism that involves a moving fluid is

Convection

real time condition of atmosphere

Weather

a variety of instruments track daily changes → ability to predicate & assess fire danger, etc

Weather measurement

wind speed & direction

Anemometer

wet & dry bulb temperature gives relative humidity

Sling psychrometer

daily maximum & minimum temperatures

“Man-min” thermometer

precipitation (need never empty)

Tipping bucket

continuous reading of humidity (hair) (bimetal strip)

Hygrometer

– pressure changes: 

• Hot air rises → pressure decreases (expands & cools → rain)

• Cool air descends → pressure increases (compresses & heats → dry)

Barometer

rain

Rising air (low pressure)

clear

Descending air (high pressure)

Doppler radar

measures wind speed & direction with reflected microwaves (directly toward/away only)

Weather balloon

altitude, pressure, temperature, wind (radiosonde, recover <25% for reuse)

Weather satellites

images of cloud movement

Convection cells –

• hot air rises from the equator (L, rain), moves up & outward, falls at 30 degrees North & South (H, dry subtropical jet → deserts)

• Air rises again at 60 degrees North and South (L, wet, temperature rain forests); polar air descends (H, dry)

Jet Stream

high altitude, high velocity winds, create lift (L)

Pressure gradients

air flows from high to low pressure (greater difference → greater winds)

Coriolis force

equator moves faster than poles, causes deflection (Southern Hemisphere = deflected left and Northern Hemisphere = deflected right)