Composition & Structure
The most abundant gas in the atmosphere.
What is Nitrogen?
The process of conversion from liquid to gas.
What is evaporation?
On a map, the line of constant pressure.
What is an isobar?
The boundary between two air masses.
What is a front?
Climate includes the average weather and this.
What are extremes?
The layer where weather happens.
What is the Troposphere?
The combination of evaporation, condensation, transpiration, flow and storage that describes water’s behavior on earth.
What is the water cycle?
If temperature remains constant and pressure increases, volume does this.
What is decreases?
On a weather map, this is indicated by a blue line with triangles.
What is a cold front?
These climates form near 30 degrees north and south because of sinking air at the boundary of global circulation cells.
What are deserts?
Pressure does this as altitude increases. In the troposphere, temperature also usually does this as altitude increases unless there is an inversion.
What is decreases?
The most dense phase (bonus if you remember the densest temperature).
What is liquid at 4 C?
If volume stays the same and temperature increases, pressure does this.
What is increases?
Referred to as a trough and marked with an ‘L’ on weather maps.
What is a low pressure system or area of low pressure.
This feature of Earth’s orientation is the cause of seasonal variation in temperature and hours of daylight.
What is obliquity or tilt?
Located above the troposphere, this layer contains ozone that protects us from UV radiation.
What is the stratosphere?
The percentage of possible water vapor present in the air.
What is relative humidity?
The force due to variations in pressure that causes wind.
What is pressure gradient force?
In order to know if clouds and precipitation are likely it is important to know the temperature, pressure and this.
What is humidity?
This type of feedback reinforces itself. For example, cold temperatures leading to ice which reflects more incoming energy leading to colder temperatures.
What is a positive feedback?
An atmospheric trace gas produced both naturally and by man that absorbs outgoing infrared radiation potentially warming the surface.
What is CO2?
The condition when relative humidity is 100%.
What is saturation?
Wind moves, due to the pressure gradient force from _____ to _____ pressure.
What is High to Low?
I can expect sunny skies under high pressure because the air is moving this way.
What is subsiding or moving down?
This climate feature is defined by water temperature oscillation in the equatorial Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America and impacts the weather worldwide.
What is ENSO or El Nino/La Nina?