Vocabulary
The Atmosphere
Clouds & Precipitation
Weather Factors
Air Masses & Weather Fronts
100

the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place

What is weather?

100
the layer we live in

What is the troposhere?

100

cloud type that is wispy, above 6,000 m

What is a cirrus cloud?

100
a measure of the KE of air molecules

What is air temperature?

100
cT stands for

What is continental tropical?

200

strato means...

What is "flat"?

200

the gas found in the highest percentage in Earth's atmosphere

What is nitrogen?

200
cloud type that contains precipitation

What is a nimbus cloud?

200

measured in millibars

What is air pressure?

200

maritime air masses contain...

What is moisture?

300

the temperature at which the air becomes saturated with vapor and it begins to condense forming dew

What is the dew point?

300

the coldest layer of the atmosphere

What is the mesosphere?

300

reaches the surface as large pellets of ice; starts as a small piece of ice that is repeatedly lifted and dropped in an updraft within a cloud adding an ice layer each time

What is hail?

300

measured by an anemometer

What is wind speed?

300

type of front that usually involves 3 air masse

What is an occluded front?

400

the boundary between air masses

What is a front?

400

this layer contains the ozone layer

What is the stratosphere?

400

frozen precipitation that melts in warm air and refreezes before it hits the ground

What is sleet?

400

the amount of vapor in the air compared to what it could hold; it is a percent.

What is relative humidity?

400

a large body of circulating air with low p at its center and higher P outside of the system

What is a low pressure system?

500

the transfer of thermal energy through a fluid

What is convection?

500

the 3rd highest gas in the atmosphere

What is argon?

500

type of clouds commonly found at cold fronts

cumulus or cumulonimbus

500

water in a liquid or solid form that fall from the atmosphere

What is precipitation?

500

front stalls for days with warm air on one side and cold air on the other

What is a stationary front?