Atmosphere & Climate
What are the 2 major gasses that make up our atmosphere?
Nitrogen (~78%), Oxygen (~21%), and small amounts of other gases.
What provides the energy that causes air to move and weather to occur?
The Sun.
What are the 4 types of fronts?
Cold, warm, stationary, and occluded fronts.
What type of heat transfer comes from the Sun?
Radiation.
What are the 2 of the major Air Masses in North America?
Continental Polar (cP), Continental Arctic (cA), Maritime Polar (mP), Maritime Tropical (mT), and Continental Tropical (cT)
What layer of the atmosphere do we live in?
The Troposphere.
What causes wind to move from one place to another in Earth’s atmosphere?
Differences in air pressure.
What are 2 necessary conditions for Hurricanes?
Warm ocean water and moist air.
How do dark and light surfaces differ in how they interact with heat on Earth?
Dark surfaces absorb more heat; light surfaces reflect more heat.
What type of air mass forms over cold, dry land areas like Canada?
Continental Polar (cP).
What are the 5 layers of the atmosphere?
Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Exosphere.
What is the Coriolis Effect?
What causes winds to bend and reflect in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
What are 2 different types of clouds?
Cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and cumulonimbus clouds.
Under what type of weather conditions will evaporation be the quickest?
Warm, dry, windy conditions.
What part of Earth’s atmosphere absorbs harmful UV radiation from the Sun?
The ozone layer.
What is the difference between climate and weather?
Weather is short-term conditions; climate is long-term patterns.
What causes the Coriolis Effect?
Earth’s rotation.
What do we call the area in the U.S. that gets the most tornadoes?
Tornado Alley.
What is an example of a greenhouse gas?
Carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor.
What layer of the atmosphere contains the ozone layer?
The stratosphere.
How does a location's latitude affect its average temperature?
Areas closer to the equator are warmer; areas farther away are colder.
What are the 3 major global winds?
Trade winds, westerlies, and polar easterlies.
Why is the water cycle considered a cycle?
Water continuously moves through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation in a repeating loop.
What is the difference between the greenhouse effect and global warming?
The greenhouse effect is natural heat trapping; global warming is the increase in Earth’s temperature.
How does temperature change in the atmosphere as we go up the different layers?
Troposphere = decreases, Stratosphere = increases, Mesosphere = decreases, Thermosphere = increases.