Geology 305 – Final Review Material – Weather & Climate

(chapters 16-19, ch. 20, pg 574-581)

Terms:

air pressure barometer isobar cyclone anticyclone jet stream monsoon polar easterlies westerlies trade winds equatorial low subtropical high subpolar low polar high warm front cold front

occluded front stationary front pressure gradient El Niño/Southern Oscillation atmospheric instability calorie deposition sublimation dew point evaporation fog clouds relative humidity specific humidity orographic lifting saturation

wet adiabatic rate dry adiabatic rate albedo equinox solstice Tropic of Capricorn Tropic of Cancer heat temperature convection conduction radiation climate weather environmental lapse rate Greenhouse effect

ozone CFC's troposphere stratosphere ultraviolet radiation visible light tropopause Arctic Circle Antarctic Circle latent heat sensible heat Coriolis Force Mid-latitude cyclone

1. What is the difference between climate and weather?
2. What is the composition of dry atmosphere?
3. How much water vapor can be in Earth’s atmosphere?
4. What role does CO₂ play in the Greenhouse effect?
5. What family of chemicals contributes to ozone depletion?
6. In which layer of Earth’s atmosphere is ozone concentrated?
7. What role does ozone play in our lives?
8. Where is stratospheric ozone depletion highest?
9. What are the two lowest layers of Earth’s atmosphere?
10. Describe each layer in terms of temperature trends.
11. What happens to air pressure as altitude increases?
12. What is an example of shorter wave radiant energy that comes from the sun? Longer wave radiant energy?
13. What is the relative amount of 1) ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma radiation, 2) visible light, and 3) infrared wavelengths, that come to Earth from the Sun?
14. How does the angle at which the Sun’s rays change with latitude? How does this affect temperatures at those latitudes?
15. What causes the seasons?
16. What is the angle between the plane of the equator and the plane of Earth’s orbit?
17. At which latitudes would you find the Tropic of Cancer? Tropic of Capricorn? Arctic Circle? Antarctic Circle?
18. At which latitudes do the sun’s rays strike the Earth perpendicularly at the solstices? The equinoxes?
19. What is the relative difference between the length of day and night for each of the seasons in each hemisphere?
20. Roughly how thick is the troposphere?
21. What is Earth’s albedo?  What is an example of a high albedo surface?  a low albedo surface?
22. What are the two basic scales for measuring temperature? How do they differ?
23. What are three different types of heat transfer?
24. What is the difference between heat and temperature?
    
25. Why do oceans (or rather large bodies of water) tend to have a moderating effect on coastal areas?
26. What types of seasonal temperature differences generally exist for areas farther from oceans?
27. Relatively speaking, what is the difference in the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of H₂0 compared to the amount of heat required to change H₂0 from one state of matter to another?
28. With respect to water vapor, what does saturation mean?
29. What is the formula for relative humidity?
    
30. How does relative humidity change with temperature changes? How does relative humidity generally change throughout the day?
31. What are adiabatic temperature changes? What is the environmental lapse rate? Dry adiabatic rate? Wet adiabatic rate?
32. What conditions produce unstable atmosphere? What happens in unstable atmosphere? What produces stable atmospheric conditions?
33. What are processes for lifting air in the atmosphere?
34. What does rising air in the atmosphere tend to do?
    
35. What are three types of fog? Where would you find each in California?
36. What are various units for measuring air pressure?
37. How do air masses move at Earth's surface around high & low pressure centers?  In which direction do they circulate?
38. How do air masses move vertically above low and high pressure centers?
39. What causes the Coriolis Effect? How does it affect the way air circulates around high & low pressure centers?
40. What are trade winds? How do they blow?
41. What are the names and trends for the various prevailing pressure belts on Earth?
    
42. What is the general circulation of air on a non-rotating earth?
43. What kind of wind patterns develop in a rotating Earth?
44. What causes wind? What is pressure gradient force?
45. How do we describe wind direction?
46. Where are the jet streams located? In which direction do they flow?
47. How do hurricanes form?  Where do most hurricanes form?
48. What are some other names for hurricanes used in other parts of the world?
49. What kind of barometric pressure is at the center of a hurricane?
50. Under what conditions does a hurricane build or maintain its strength?
51. Under what conditions does a hurricane weaken?
52. What time of the year is hurricane season?
53. What are three categories of damage caused by hurricanes?
54. What are the characteristics of the four different types of air masses, and explain their source regions.
55. What are the characteristics of the 4 different types of weather fronts, and generally, what type of weather is associated with each?
56. How and where does a mid-latitude cyclone develop?
57. What is Doppler radar? What is it used for?
58. What is the El Niño/Southern Oscillation?
59. What is the Greenhouse effect? Which gases produce the strongest Greenhouse effect?
60. Define convection, and then describe a process in each of three different Earth Science fields (Astronomy, Geology, Oceanography, Meteorology) that operates by convection.