Atmosphere & Air Pressure
This instrument measures air pressure.
What is a barometer?
Lines on a weather map connect points of equal pressure.
What are isobars?
Air that holds all the water vapor it can at its temperature is described this way.
What is saturated?
Shown with blue triangles, this front forms when cold, dense air pushes under warm air and often causes thunderstorms.
What is a cold front?
An immense body of air with similar temperature and moisture at any given altitude.
What is an air mass?
This gas makes up about 78% of Earth's atmosphere.
What is nitrogen?
These narrow, fast-moving "rivers" of air flow high in the atmosphere.
What are jet streams?
This is the temperature to which air must be cooled to reach saturation.
What is the dew point?
Shown with red semicircles, this front brings several hours of light to moderate precipitation.
What is a warm front?
This is the area where an air mass gets its temperature and moisture characteristics.
What is a source region?
Nearly all of Earth's weather occurs in this layer.
What is the troposphere?
In the Northern Hemisphere, winds around a high-pressure system blow in this direction (2 part answer).
What is clockwise and outward?
This compares the water vapor in the air to the most it can hold at that temperature.
What is relative humidity?
This front forms when a cold front overtakes a warm front.
What is an occluded front?
A continental polar (cP) air mass is made up air that is this (2 part answer).
What is cold and dry?
Most of the atmosphere's ozone is concentrated in this layer.
What is the stratosphere?
Rising air, clouds, and storms, with pressure dropping toward the center, describe this type of system.
What is a low-pressure system?
Air that expands or is compressed changes temperature without heat being added or removed. This type of change has this name.
What is adiabatic?
Alternating blue triangles and red semicircles on opposite sides of the line mark this front, which barely moves.
What is a stationary front?
An air mass that forms over the Gulf of Mexico would be this type.
What is maritime tropical (mT)?
This layer is the coldest in the atmosphere (not including the exosphere).
What is the mesosphere?
Caused by Earth's rotation, this effect curves winds to the right in the Northern Hemisphere.
What is the Coriolis effect?
The air temperature is 20°C and the dew point is 19°C. This describes the relative humidity.
What is very high (near saturation, so fog or clouds are likely)?
This is the lifting process in which warm, less dense air is forced up over cooler, denser air.
What is frontal wedging?
This hot, dry air mass forms over the deserts of northern Mexico and the Southwest.
What is continental tropical (cT)?