MET1010 FSU Exam 1

The most abundant gases in the earth's atmosphere by volume are:

Nitrogen and Oxygen

In a volume of air near the earth's surface, ____ occupies 78 percent and ____ nearly 21 percent.

Nitrogen, Oxygen

Which of the following is considered a variable gas in the earth's atmosphere?

Water Vapor

The gas that shows the most variation from place to place and from time to time in the lower atmosphere is which of the following?

Water Vapor

Typically, water vapor occupies about what percentage of the air's volume near the earth's surface?

Less than 4%

The only substance near the earth's surface that is found naturally in the atmosphere as a solid, liquid, and a gas is:

Water

In the atmosphere, tiny solid or liquid suspended particles of various composition are called:

Aerosols

The most abundant greenhouse gas in the earth's atmosphere is:

Water Vapor

Since the turn of this century, CO2 in the atmosphere has:

Been increasing with concentration

The greenhouse gas that has been increasing in concentration, at least partly due to deforestation, is:

Carbon Dioxide

The primary source of oxygen for the earth's atmosphere during the past half billion years or so appears to be:

Photosynthesis

____ holds a planet's atmosphere close to its surface.

Gravity

The amount of force exerted over an area of surface is called:

Pressure

Which of the following are NOT units of pressure?

Newton

Which of the following weather elements ALWAYS decreases as we climb upward in the atmosphere?

Pressure

The number or mass of air molecules in a given space or volume is called:

Density

In the stratosphere, the air temperature normally

Increases with increasing height

The earth's atmosphere is divided into layers based on the vertical profile of:

Air temperature

Almost all of the earth's weather occurs in the:

Troposphere

The hottest atmospheric layer is the:

Thermosphere

The atmospheric layer in which we live is called the:

Troposphere

The temperature of the tropopause:

Is much colder than the temperature at the earths surface

The instrument that measures temperature, pressure, and humidity at various altitudes in the atmosphere is the:

Radiosonde

Warming in the stratosphere is mainly caused by:

Absorption of ultraviolet radiation by ozone

In a temperature inversion:

Temperature increases with increasing height

The rate at which temperature decreases with increasing altitude is known as the:

Lapse rate

The gas that absorbs most of the harmful ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere is:

Ozone

Which latitude belt best describes the middle latitudes?

30°-50°

The wind direction is:

The direction from which the wind is blowing

Meteorology is the study of:

The atmosphere and its phenomena

A south wind:

Blows from the south

A towering cloud, or cluster of clouds, accompanied by thunder, lightning, and strong, gusty winds is a:

Anticyclone

Where cold surface air replaces warm air, the boundary separating the different bodies of air is:

A cold front

On a weather map, sharp changes in temperature, humidity, and wind direction are marked by:

Front

Which of the following is MOST likely associated with fair weather?

High pressure areas

Condensation is more likely to occur:

When the air cools down

Clouds often form in the:

Troposphere

Generally, weather in the middle latitudes tends to move from ____ to ____.

West to East

At the 500 mb level, the amount of oxygen inhaled in a single breath is ____ of that inhaled at sea-level.

About one half

Which of the following processes remove CO2 from the atmosphere?

Photosynthesis

As a radiosonde balloon ascends through the atmosphere, the balloon:

Bursts

Ozone in the stratosphere:

Protects life from harmful ultraviolet radiation

If you were to take a breath of pure oxygen, from a tank, you'd be getting about ____ the amount of oxygen you'd get by taking a normal breath of our atmosphere.

5 times

There is a lot of mixing and overturning of air in which of the following atmospheric layers?

Troposphere

Which of the following provides a measure of the average speed of air molecules?

Temperature

The heat energy released when water vapor changes to a liquid is called:

Latent heat of condensation

The change of state of ice into water vapor is known as:

Sublimation

When water changes from a liquid to a vapor, we call this process:

Evaporation

What is released as sensible heat during the formation of clouds?

Latent Heat

The cold feeling that you experience after leaving a swimming pool on a hot, dry, summer day represents heat transport by:

Latent Heat

The term "latent" means:

Hidden

The processes of condensation and freezing:

Both release sensible heat into the environment

The transfer of heat by molecule-to-molecule contact is:

Conduction

Rising air cools by the process of ____.

Expanding or expansion

The temperature of a rising air parcel:

Always cools due to expansion

The proper order from shortest to longest wavelength is:

Ultraviolet, visible, Infrared

Sinking air warms by the process of:

Compression

How do red and blue light differ?

Red has a higher wavelength and lower frequency

Blue has a lower wavelength and higher frequency

If the average temperature of the sun increased, the wavelength of peak solar emission would:

Shift to a shorter wavelength

Solar radiation reaches the earth's surface as:

Visible light

Electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between 0.4 and 0.7 micrometers is called:

Visible Light

The sun emits a maximum amount of radiation at wavelengths near ____, while the earth emits maximum radiation near wavelengths of ____.

.5 micrometers and 10 micrometers

The blueness of the sky is mainly due to:

The scattering of sunlight by air molecules

Which of the following determines the kind (wavelength) and amount of radiation that an object emits?

Temperature

Often before sunrise on a clear, calm, cold morning, ice (frost) can be seen on the tops of parked cars, even when the air temperature is above freezing. This condition happens because the tops of the cars are cooling by ____.

Radiation

Evaporation is a ____ process.

Cooling

Which of the following has a wavelength shorter than that of violet light?

Ultraviolet radiation

How much radiant energy will an object emit if its temperature is at absolute zero?

None

Most of the radiation emitted by a human body is in the form of:

Infrared Radiation

The sun emits its greatest intensity of radiation in:

The visible portion of the spectrum

The earth's radiation is often referred to as ____ radiation, while the sun's radiation is often referred to as ____ radiation.

Longwave, Shortwave

If the earth's average surface temperature were to increase, the amount of radiation emitted from the earth's surface would ____, and the wavelength of peak emission would shift toward ____ wavelengths.

Increase, shorter

The earth emits radiation with greatest intensity at:

Infrared wavelengths

"A good absorber of a given wavelength of radiation is also a good emitter of that wavelength." This is a statement of:

Kirchhoff's Law

Without the atmospheric greenhouse effect, the average surface temperature would be:

Lower than at present

According to Wein's displacement law, the wavelength at which maximum radiation occurs:

Is inversely proportional to the temperature

An increase in albedo would be accompanied by ____ in radiative equilibrium temperature.

A decrease

On the average, about what percentage of the solar energy that strikes the outer atmosphere eventually reaches the earth's surface?

50%

Sunlight that bounces off a surface is said to be ____ from the surface.

Reflected

Collision of solar wind particles with Earth's magnetosphere causes

Aurora

Suppose you are outside in very cold temperatures, wearing a winter coat that is quite effective at keeping you warm. Which of the following is true?

The coat prevents your body heat from escaping into the surroundings

Sunlight passes through a thicker portion of the atmosphere at:

Sunset

When a plate of hot food is left on the table for awhile, it cools by:

Radiation

A red shirt:

Selectively scatters red wavelengths of visible light and absorbs the rest

If you want to keep an object cool while exposed to direct sunlight:

Wrap it in aluminum foil with the shiny side facing outward

Which of the following is NOT a reason why water warms and cools much more slowly than land?

It takes more heat to raise the temperature of a given amount of soil 1°C than it does to raise the temperature of water 1°C.

Water heats up ____ and cools off ____ than land.

More slowly, more slowly

Which of the following will increase in a rising parcel of air?

Relative humidity

Albedo

Ability of a surface to reflect light (High albedo = more light reflected)

Celcius to Farenheit equation

2C+30

Minimum wind speed of a hurricane

74 mph/64 kts

Minimum wind of a tropical storm

39 mph/33 kts

Minimum wind of a depression

20 mph/17 kts

Sea level pressure

15 lb/in^2 = 30 in Hg = 1013 millibars

Earth to sun distance

93,000,000 miles (150 mil km)

Factors that classify storms

wind speed, low pressure center, counterclockwise rotation

Average diameter of a hurricane

several hundred miles

Diameter of hurricane eye

10-30 miles

name of course

MET1010, introduction to the atmosphere

Textbook

Meteorology today by C. Donald Ahrens