Seasons & Atmospheric Structure
What is the main reason Earth has seasons?
Earth's axial tilt
In the tropics, absorbed solar radiation is generally greater or less than outgoing longwave radiation?
Greater than
What pressure system dominates near the equator: high or low pressure?
Low pressure
Are tropical regions generally wetter or drier than polar regions?
Wetter
What feedback causes ice-covered Earth to become even colder as more sunlight is reflected?
Ice-albedo feedback
Increasing Earth’s axial tilt from 23.5° to 33.5° would make summers and winters become what?
More extreme (hotter summers, colder winters)
The atmosphere and oceans transport excess heat from where to where?
From the tropics to the poles
Surface winds moving toward the equator in the Northern Hemisphere are deflected in which direction by the Coriolis Effect?
To the right
Why is precipitation low near the poles?
Cold air sinks and holds little moisture
During Snowball Earth, volcanic eruptions continued releasing which greenhouse gas into the atmosphere?
Carbon dioxide
In the troposphere, temperature generally changes with altitude in what way?
Temperature decreases with altitude
What type of heat is released when water vapor condenses into clouds?
Latent heat
What are the prevailing tropical surface winds called?
Trade winds (easterlies)
What latitudes are known to be incredibly dry?
30-35° North and South, the Horse Latitudes
What evidence suggests Snowball Earth glaciers reached tropical latitudes?
Glacial deposits
Seattle is 15°C at sea level. Using a lapse rate of 6.5°C/km, what is the approximate temperature at 10 km altitude?
-50°C
Does condensation enhance or suppress convection through its latent heat properties?
Enhance convection
In geostrophic balance in the Northern Hemisphere, wind flows parallel to pressure contours because of the balance between which two forces?
Pressure gradient force and Coriolis force
Warm air can hold more moisture. As Earth warms, what generally happens to global precipitation extremes?
They intensify
Why did Himalayan mountain formation contribute to long-term global cooling?
Chemical weathering reduced atmospheric carbon dioxide
Which atmospheric layer contains the ozone layer and experiences increasing temperature with height?
The stratosphere
Which process is NOT a major mechanism for vertical heat transfer in the atmosphere: convection, radiation absorption by greenhouse gases, latent heat release, or sinking air in high-pressure systems?
Sinking air in high-pressure systems
If Earth suddenly rotated in the opposite direction, what would happen to the dominant wind belts?
They would reverse direction
Mountains can create wet climates on one side and dry climates on the other through what process?
Orographic lifting and rain shadow effects
After Snowball Earth ended, large freshwater input into the oceans likely caused the oceans to become more stably or unstably stratified?
More stably stratified