GEOG 1114 Exam 2

Week 6

dry/saturated/environmental lapse rates and LCL

Weather front symbols and cloud types

• Cold front has blue triangles pointing towards direction it’s going. These have most severe weather in short time. So if it is still warm, bad weather may be coming (cumulonimbus clouds)

• Warm front has red semi-circles pointing direction it’s going. has light precipitation lasting many days . Stratonimbus clouds covering sky

• Occluded front?

High v. low pressure systems

• High pressure is happy weather, (anticyclone) no clouds/wind.

• Low pressure is lousy weather. Low pressure always consists of rising air moving in on itself. Causes precipitation and severe weather

1. Which of the following phenomenon describes the associated weather with a warm front?

   1. Gradual precipitation over a long period of time

2. Which of the following cloud types is most likely to form along a cold front?

   1. Cumulonimbus

3. Which of the following terms is the name of a significant change in wind direction or speed in the vertical dimension?

   1. Wind shear

4. Which of the following is not a cyclone?

   1. Monsoon

5. Which of the following pair correctly describes the electrification at the top and bottom of cumulonimbus clouds? (top, bottom)

   1. Positive, negative

6. What is the name of the tornado reporting scale?

   1. Enhanced Fujita

7. Which direction does an anti-cyclone spin in the northern hemisphere?

   1. Clockwise

8. Which of the following defines a line joining points of equal atmospheric pressure?

   1. Isobar

9. Which of the following statements is correct regarding cold and warm fronts?

   1. A cold front forms where an advancing cold air mass meets and displaces warmer air

10. Which front indicates the “death” of a midlatitude cyclone?

    1. Occluded front

• What are these fronts and in which hemisphere do they occur?

• Which of the following cloud types might be formed at the edge of a cold front (what precipitation can you expect from a cold front and what type of cloud typically produces that)?

  • Cumulonimbus

• Are weather stations an example of in-situ or remote sensing?

  • In-situ

• Watch vs. Warning

  • Watch means conditions are favorable, warning means weather is occurring or imminent.

• Monsoons v. cyclones v. tornadoes

  • Monsoons are a seasonal change in wind and precipitation patterns (not a cyclone)

  • Tornadoes are on a microscale, cyclones are on meso or synoptic scale

  • Mid-latitude cyclones can be 2000 miles wide, rotate counterclockwise in NH and opposite in SH

    • Winter storms formed by occlusion

    • Example is nor’easter formed by energy in gulf stream. Frequent blizzards on east coast

  • Anticyclones: areas of high pressure with circulating winds (clockwise in NH, opposite in SH)

  • Tropical cyclone: low pressure systems that form over warm, tropical waters. Half reach hurricane strength (can be called hurricane or typhoons

• Mid-latitude v. tropical cyclone

  • Mid lacks thunderstorms near center and is on synoptic scale, tropical is on mesoscale and has thunderstorms near center

• A hurricane and mid-latitude cyclone belong to which of the following weather scales, respectively?

  • Mesoscale, synoptic scale

• Which of the following correctly describes a high-pressure system?

  • Sinking air pushing out

• Geography v. weather

  • Length of warm season and warm body of water needed for weather, but these change with latitude

• Tornado v. hurricane reporting scales

  • EF Scale: tornadoes, damage based, 6 categories

  • Saffir-Simpson scale: hurricanes, sustained wind based, 5 categories

Week 7

1. Using the Koeppen classification system, a climate classified as a BW (Bwh) would have

   1. Arid, hot desert

2. Which of the following best shows the location of “C” climates?

   1. Mid-latitudes

3. The boreal forest biome is known for its:

   1. Coniferous trees

4. Most of the eastern half of the United States is covered by:

   1. Temperate forest

5. What is the reason that antarctica can be classified as having a semi-arid climate?

   1. The continent receives very little precipitation.

6. Earth’s large deserts, such as the sahara and the Australian desert, are located underneath:

   1. Zones of high pressure

7. Which of the following biomes is not found in either high altitudes or high latitudes?

   1. Grasslands

8. On a climograph, annual average temperature is represented using a 

   1. Line graph

9. What line or region best correspond with the location of “E” climates?

   1. High latitudes

10. The subclassifications of the Tropical Humid Climates (A) represent:

    1. The amount and seasonality of precipitation

• Which of the following statements correctly notes the difference between weather and climate?

  • Climate is long term: weather is short term AND climate is based on weather

• Climate v Biome

  • Average weather over a long period of time, biome is influenced by climate but includes region wide vegetation and biological features

• The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is a band along the equator of which type of pressure system?

  • Low

• What two types of graphs do climographs use?

  • Bar graph and line graph

• In a climograph, temperature is noted by a graph, while precipitation is noted by a graph

  • Line, bar

• How do arid climates form

  • Hadley cells create high pressure areas near the equator, making the land below them have low precipitation. Rain shadow areas also

• What is the difference between the two Mediterranean climates (Csa and Csb)?

  • Severity of weather

• Why do polar climates exist in other places besides the poles?

  • High elevation areas (mountain ranges)

• Abiotic v. Biotic factors

  • Abiotic is nonliving and biotic is living

• Land v. aquatic abiotic factors

  • Land is soil, climate, sunlight, disturbances (wildfires), insolation, water temperature and depth, nutrients salinity and dissolved 02

What biomes are in cont. US?

Formation of location of deserts

• Deserts are anything that receive little precipitation. B-type. Steppe gets more precipitation that desert, still a B-type

• Located on west coasts, currents of ocean and rain shadows affect this.

Microclimates: Small scale factors that lead to create a different smaller biome/climate zone. Ex. riparian zone–found along streams with more constant streams of water. Slopes also receive precipitation differently windward vs leeward. Elevation cuts off tree lines and snow lines.

8

• Dendrochronology is the study of 

  • Tree rings

• Regarding climate change, anthropogenic means:

  • Human or man-made in origin

• Albedo is 

  • The reflexivity of a surface and the fraction of total solar radiation that is reflected back into space

• Which of the following is the name for solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere?

  • Aerosols

• Ice cores are one of the best proxies for scientists to reconstruct the paleoclimate because:

  • (all of the above) they contain air bubbles that can explain the composition of the atmosphere, they can depict past volcanic activity, newer (more recent in time) layers are deeper in the ice core.

• Are the UN Conferences of the Parties (COPs) always held at the same place?

  • No

• What year was the Kyoto Protocol?

  • 1997

• Paleoclimatology is the study of 

  • Past climates

• What does GCM stand for?

  • General circulation model

• Which of the following is not a high confidence prediction by the IPCC as it pertains to future climate change?

  • There will not be food shortages

• Adaptation vs mitigation vs geoengineering

  • Adaptation is immediate and short-term fixes to lessen climate-driven damage and mitigation is correcting the roots of climate change as well as greatly alter its policy and geoengineering is attempt to manually alter the climate

• Assign the correct climate change policy to the change

  • Building sea walls (adaption)

  • Limiting meat production (mitigation)

  • Disperse glass beads across poles to increase albedo (geoengineering)

• Natural vs. Anthropogenic aerosols

  • Natural are dust, smoke, volcanic ash that can benefit nature. Anthropogenic are sulfates, nitrates, black carbon

• Which of the following are naturally occurring greenhouse gases?

  • CO2, water vapor, methane

• Polar ice melt affects which of the following?

  • Albedo, sea level, oceanic currents, salinity, habitats

COPs: hosted by UN in different locations. COP3 Kyoto protocol. Advocates for helping climate

Proxies: help us study past climate. Ice cores, carbon dating, dendrochronology.

(why we use them and main ones covered in wk 8 ppt)

9

1. Which of the following is not a part of photosynthesis?

   1. Nitrogen

2. Which of the following correctly describes k versus r selected species?

   1. K species have less offspring than r species

3. A group of members of the same species is referred to as a/an

   1. Population

4. Which of the following does not help to explain why net primary productivity (NPP) is greatest in equatorial regions?

   1. Low pressure (more precipitation) 

5. Which of the following correctly describes auto versus heterotrophs?

   1. Autotrophs are primary producers

6. Biodiversity refers to the different kinds of ___ present in a location

   1. Organisms

7. TF: Wildfires can be beneficial to the environment?

   1. True

8. An example of mutualism would be:

   1. A bird that eats ticks from a zebra’s skin.

9. An example of parasitism would be:

   1. The bacteria that causes pneumonia

10. What is the name for the cycle that changes carbon dioxide to living matter and back to carbon dioxide?

    1. Carbon cycle

• What is an example of commensalism?

  • Spanish moss growing on live oaks (doesn’t harm oak tree)

• Individual v. community v. population

  • Individual is one organism, population is bunch of same organisms, community is mix of communities.

• K v. R reproduction methods

  • K is more nourishment for fewer offspring for higher chance of one surviving

  • R is less nourishment for many offspring for higher chance of a couple surviving

• Symbiotic relationship: close long-term relationship between two species

• Ecology: how organisms interact and the study of their environment

• Photosynthesis inputs sunlight water c02, outputs sugar and oxygen