Atmosphere
The layer of gases that surround the Earth.
What is the atmosphere?
The state of Earth's troposphere at a given place and time.
What is weather?
Billowy, puffy clouds that seem to rise from flat bottoms.
What are cumulus clouds?
The boundary between two air masses.
What is a front?
The average weather pattern of a region over time.
What is climate?
The most abundant gases in the atmosphere are nitrogen and _______________ .
What is oxygen?
Weather variables include factors such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, and _____________________ .
What is precipitation?
Clouds that appear in blanketlike layers.
What are stratus clouds?
A weather front where warm air moves in over a cold air mass and often brings light, steady precipitation.
What is a warm front?
The location north or south of the equator.
What is latitude?
The lowest layer of the atmosphere in which most of our weather takes place.
What is the troposphere?
The measurement of the brightness of the Earth system (atmosphere, ocean, land surfaces) that determine how much solar energy is immediately reflected back to space.
What is albedo?
Clouds that have wispy, featherlike shapes.
What are cirrus clouds?
A large region of the atmosphere in which the air has similar properties throughout.
What is an air mass?
Zero degrees latitude.
Where is the equator?
The process by which a liquid changes into a gas.
What is evaporation?
The shift in winds to the right or left caused by Earth's rotation.
What is the Coriolis effect?
The center of a hurricane.
What is the eye?
The pressure system that brings fair weather.
What is a high pressure system?
The height of an object from a given point.
What is altitude?
Jet airplanes fly in this layer of the atmosphere.
What is the stratosphere?
A circular pattern of rising air, sinking air, and winds.
What is a convection cell?
Four main forms of precipitation.
What are rain, snow, sleet, and hail?
An air mass that was formed over the ocean near the equator.
What is maritime tropical?
A rain shadow is formed on this side of a mountain.
What is the leeward side?