JJB Exam #1

Geography

The study of place and can be pursued in the context of almost any discipline.

Geographic questions can be addressed using the…

Scientific Method

Scientific Method

Involves a repetitive cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, observation of results, and construction of new hypothesis.

Science

A particular discipline or branch of learning, especially one dealing with measurable or systematic principles rather than intuition or natural ability.

Empiricism

A pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, particularly by observation and sometimes experimentation.

Systematic Principles

Involve following an agreed-upon set of steps to learn about the world in a way that is replicable and provides the capacity for prediction.

Science is a _____ activity where we learn by disproving hypothesis, but can never truly prove something to be true.

negative

Testing hypotheses is reductionist. Reductionist means…

The scientist takes a big idea, breaks into lots of little supporting hypotheses and tries to disprove each little hypothesis to see if the larger idea holds up.

When breaking a problem into testable pieces with results, we are _____ the problem.

analyzing

When a lot of pieces of a problem come together, we synthesize results to form a greater picture of the whole. Synthesis is…

useful for constructing big ideas that aren’t necessarily testable in themselves, but have lots of individual components that are testable with hypothesis.

GIS

A computational tool that allows us to put diverse spatial datasets together to address problem through analysis or synthesis.

Deciduous Tree

A tree which loses leaves in the autumn and regrows new leaves in the spring.

Habitat

A natural community of plants and landforms that provide food and shelter for the organisms living within it.

Ecosystem

Describes all of the organisms and flows of food and energy that support those organisms in a given area.

A ________ is used to represent the Earth on a flat map. It allows us to use coordinates to tie a point on our map to a point on the nearly spherical Earth. However, it distorts distances, areas, and/or shapes.

Projection

We use several _______ _______ to represent the Earth including latitude and longitude angular coordinates and UTM coordinates which use northing and easting in meters.

Coordinate systems

Declination

The angular difference between the magnetic north (the direction the north end of a compass points) and the geographic north (true north).

Azimuth

The angle between the direction you’re facing (usually north) and the object you’re looking at, measured in degrees clockwise around a circle.

Triangulation

Figuring out a location by measuring angles from two or more known points (you know your position and find another location).

Resection

A method to find your location by measuring angles to known landmarks where you are.(you don’t know your location, but use known points to figure it out)

GPS (Global Positioning System)

A systems of satellites, ground stations, and receivers that allow one to identify their position on the surface of the Earth.

Accuracy

How close a measurement or location is to the true or correct value.

Example:

If you say a location is London, and it’s actually London, that’s accurate — even if it’s not super detailed.

Precision

How detailed or exact a measurement or location is, even if it’s not correct.

Example:
If your GPS gives your location as 51.5074° N, 0.1278° W, that’s very precise — even if it’s a little off from where you really are.

The several uses of GPS are…

• Driving directions

• Surveying

• Marine location

• Hunting and fishing

• Research

• Hiking/off-road biking

• Fun and games

Space Segment

Includes the GPS satellites orbiting Earth that send signals to receivers. These satellites constantly transmit time and location data needed for positioning.

Control Segment

The control segment consists of ground stations that monitor, manage, and update the GPS satellites. They ensure the satellites stay in the correct orbit and send accurate signals.

User Segment

Includes all GPS receivers that use satellite signals to calculate their location. Examples include phones, car navigation systems, and handheld GPS devices.

Temperature

A measure of the heat content of the atmosphere (or any other material)

Isolation

A measure of incoming solar radiation and varies on a daily and seasonal basis.

Albedo

The brightness or darkness of a surface, measuring how much light is reflected from a surface vs. absorbed by the surface. Higher albedo means more reflectivity, opposed to lower albedo which absorbs the light.

The controls on temperature include…

Daily and seasonal cycles of insolation, air masses, surface type, nearby water bodies, elevation.

Surface temperature can be transferred from one place to another by…

conduction, convection, or latent heat transfer.

Conduction

Direct transfer of surface temperature from one surface to another.

Convection

Surface temperature/heat transferred by fluid mixing.

Latent heat transfer

Surface temperature/heat transferred by evaporation or condensation of water.

Wind chill

Makes one feel colder because the wind encourages additional evaporation from the skin which removes heat.

A ______ measures atmospheric pressure.

barometer

Wind speed and direction are a function of…

gravity, pressure gradient force, Coriolis effect, and friction.

Differences in air pressure over space create a ________ ________

pressure gradient

_______ that are closer together mean a larger pressure gradient force and therefore greater winds.

isobars

Low pressure is _______

convergent (air wants to flow in towards low pressure)

High pressure is _______

divergent (air is coming down from higher up in the atmosphere and piling up at the surface)

What causes land and sea breezes?

They happen because land and water heat and cool at different rates, affecting air temperature and pressure.

What is a sea breeze?

A sea breeze blows from the sea to the land during the day when the land heats up faster than the sea.

Why does a sea breeze occur?

Warm air over land rises (low pressure), and cooler air over the sea (high pressure) moves in to replace it.

What is a land breeze?

A land breeze blows from the land to the sea at night when the land cools down faster than the water.

Why does a land breeze occur?

At night, the sea stays warmer than the land, so warm air rises over the water and cool air from land moves in.

How are land/sea breezes related to pressure?

Air moves from high pressure (cool air) to low pressure (warm, rising air), creating breezes.

Coriolis Force

Bends winds to the right in the northern
hemisphere.

Anemometer

Measures wind speed.

Windvane

Measures wind direction.

Cyclonic system

winds spiral counter-clockwise into a low pressure system (like a hurricane).

Anti-cyclonic system

winds spiral clockwise away from a high pressure system.

Latent heat

Released or absorbed during phase changes of water including melting, freezing, condensation, evaporation, sublimation, and deposition.

Specific humidity

The absolute amount of water vapor in the atmosphere (g/kg).

Relative humidity

The proportion of water vapor content to the total amount of water vapor the atmosphere can hold at a given temperature.

Dew point temperature

The temperature at which relative humidity is 100% and the air saturates with water, forming dew, frost, or fog/clouds.

Cloud types

cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, altocumulus, altostratus, cumulonimbus, nimbostratus, stratus, stratocumulus, and cumulus.

Cold front

When a cold air mass pushes under a warm air mass, forcing the warm air to rise quickly, often causing thunderstorms or heavy rain.

Warm front

A warm air mass moves over a cold air mass, rising slowly and bringing steady rain or light snow followed by warmer, clearer weather.

The components of the hydrological cycle

Evaporation, evapotranspiration (actual and potential), precipitation, interception, overland flow/runoff, surface water, infiltration, aquifer
recharge, groundwater flow, oceans.

Discharge

The volume of water passing a given cross-section of its channel within a given amount of time and can be calculated as average velocity * cross-section area.

What does a hydrograph show?

Records how a river’s discharge (flow) changes over time, usually after a rainfall event.

Drainage network

The full system of connected streams, including the main (trunk) stream and all its tributaries, within a watershed or basin.

Trunk stream

A trunk stream is the main river in a drainage network where all smaller streams (tributaries) eventually flow into.

Tributaries

Smaller streams or rivers that flow into a larger stream or the trunk stream, helping collect water from across the watershed.

Types of water pollution

Eutrophication, bacteria, man-made chemicals, heavy metals, sediments, and thermal pollution.

Eutrophication

When excess nutrients (like nitrogen and phosphorus) enter water, causing algal blooms that reduce oxygen levels and harm aquatic life.

BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand)

Measures how much oxygen is needed by bacteria to break down organic matter; high BOD means more pollution and less oxygen available for aquatic life.

What is dissolved oxygen, and how is it affected?

The oxygen available in water for organisms to breathe; it drops after eutrophication or thermal pollution because decomposition and warmer water both reduce oxygen levels.

Conductivity

A helpful measure of dissolved ionic material like salts and can be used to understand when salts might be impacting water quality.

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

Measures the total amount of dissolved material in the water and can indicate the “taste” of water as well as the overall amount of pollutants in the water.

Point source pollution

Comes from a single, identifiable location, like a pipe from a factory or a sewage treatment plant.

Non-point source pollution

Comes from many diffuse sources, like runoff from farms, streets, or lawns that carry fertilizers, oil, or pesticides into water.

Biotic index

A measure of water quality using aquatic
organisms.

Contour lines

Lines on a topographic map representing constant elevation in the landscape.