Air Masses and Fronts
What do we call the boundary between two different air masses?
A front
Does air pressure get higher or lower as you go up in altitude?
Lower
What is fog?
A cloud at the surface of the Earth
What are the two main gases in Earth's atmosphere?
Nitrogen and oxygen
What is the center of a hurricane called?
The eye
This type of front occurs when a cold front overtakes a warm front, forcing warm air upward.
What is an occluded front?
The closer together isobars are on a weather map, the _____ the winds will be.
stronger/faster
This is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor.
dew point
This layer of the atmosphere contains the ozone layer and air temperature increases with altitude.
stratosphere
A hurricane must have sustained winds of at least this speed to be classified as a hurricane.
74 mph
A maritime tropical air mass would be characterized by these two conditions.
warm and moist
This effect, caused by Earth's rotation, deflects wind to the right in the Northern Hemisphere.
Coriolis Effect
When air is forced upward by mountains, this type of lifting occurs, and the windward side receives more precipitation than the leeward side.
orographic lifting
This process transfers thermal energy through electromagnetic waves from the Sun to Earth.
radiation
The greatest damage and most deaths from hurricanes result from this phenomenon.
storm surge
A stationary front is marked by these two symbols on a weather map, indicating it's not moving toward the other air mass.
red semi-circles on one side and blue triangles on the other
Explain the relationship between pressure gradient and wind speed using isobars as your reference.
the steeper the pressure gradient (closer isobars), the greater the wind speed
These four methods explain why air rises in the atmosphere to form clouds.
orographic lifting, frontal wedging, air mass lifting, and convergence
Dry air cools faster than moist air as elevation increases because moist air absorbs this type of energy transfer.
heat/thermal energy (or radiation)
Hurricanes are classified by intensity using this scale, which rates them based on wind speed.
Saffir-Simpson scale
Explain why warm fronts take longer to displace cold air compared to cold fronts, and describe the precipitation patterns associated with each.
warm air is less dense and rises slowly over cold air, creating long, steady rain; while cold air is denser and moves quickly, creating heavy precipitation and thunderstorms
Describe how uneven heating of Earth's atmosphere creates global wind patterns and identify the three wind cells in each hemisphere.
the equator receives more sunlight, causing air to expand and rise, then flow toward poles; while polar air is denser and flows toward the equator, creating Trade winds, Westerlies, and Polar Easterlies
Explain the relationship between relative humidity, temperature, and saturation, and why cold air reaching 100% relative humidity causes condensation.
warm air can hold more moisture than cold air; when temperature drops, the air's capacity to hold moisture decreases, so the same amount of water vapor now represents a higher percentage (100%), causing condensation
Describe how convection currents form in the atmosphere and explain the role of density changes in this process.
near Earth's surface, air heats up and becomes less dense, causing it to rise; as it rises, it cools, becomes denser, and sinks, creating continuous convection currents
Explain the stages of hurricane development from tropical disturbance through hurricane, and identify the condition necessary for hurricane formation.
tropical disturbance → tropical depression (winds up to 38 mph) → tropical storm (winds over 39 mph, gets named) → hurricane (winds over 74 mph); formed when ocean water temperatures and warm air masses interact during late summer