Definitions
The study of weather.
What is meteorology?
This name means "curl", and it's feathered look is a result of ice crystals at high altitude.
What are cirrus clouds?
Moisture falling from the atmosphere as rain, snow, or hail.
What is precipitation?
Results when static electricity charges build up until air particles can no longer separate them.
What is lightning?
Regular and predictable patterns of water movement as a result of gravitational pull from the moon and sun.
What are tides?
Water cools as it falls back to the Earth's surface and joins with dust particles.
What is condensation?
The 2 major regions of the Earth's atmosphere.
What is the homosphere and the heterosphere?
Force exerted onto a surface by the weight of air molecules.
What is air pressure?
Super-heated air rapidly expands and bumps into the air masses next to it, causing a huge shock wave of sound.
What is thunder?
Massive waves that form as a result of underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
What is a tsunami?
A measure of how much water vapor is in the air.
What is humidity?
This is where clouds and weather occur.
What is the troposhere?
This one thing drives all the weather on Earth.
What is the sun?
Narrow funnel of rapidly swirling wind.
What is a tornado?
Tallest mountain in the world.
What is Mt. Mauna Kea?
Every 2-7 years the waters of the East Pacific Ocean become warmer from December-February, causing heavy rain and flooding in North America.
What is El Nino Southern Oscillation
This part of the atmosphere acts like an electric mirror that bounces radio waves back to Earth.
What is the ionosphere?
A mass of cold air wedges below a mass of warm air, causing it to rise quickly.
What is a cold front?
This large-scale storm forms during warmer months, when ocean waters reach a temperature of 80 degrees F.
What is a hurricane?
This gently sloping underwater plain is full of sea life.
What is the continental shelf?
Mechanism by which organisms create their own light.
What is bioluminescence?
Moist air cools and settles near the ground.
What is fog?
This type of pressure causes warm, cloudy, and stormy weather conditions.
What is high pressure?
This effect causes tornadoes to spin counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
What is the Coriolis effect?
Wind patterns cause surface currents to move in a circular pattern.
What is a gyre?