Entering the Atmosphere
The process in which liquid water in oceans, lakes, and streams is heated by the sun and changes into water vapor in the air
What is evaporation?
The process that occurs when water vapor cools and changes back into liquid water
What is condensation?
Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth’s surface
What is precipitation?
The downward force responsible for pulling heavy water droplets from clouds down to Earth's surface
What is gravity?
The average, year-after-year pattern of temperature, precipitation, wind, and clouds in an area
What is climate?
The process where plants absorb water through their roots and release it into the air as water vapor through their leaves
The specific temperature at which condensation begins as warm air cools down
What is the dew point?
The most common type of precipitation, originating as tiny cloud droplets that grow larger into mist and fall to the ground.
What is rain?
Water that flows across Earth's land surface back into streams, lakes, and oceans
What is runoff?
Unlike climate, this term describes the short-term, day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere in a specific area
What is weather?
The process in which animals and humans release water vapor into the air every time they exhale
What is respiration?
For condensation to occur in the atmosphere, water vapor must have these tiny particles—such as salt, soil dust, bacteria, or smoke—to condense onto
What are atmospheric particles (or dust, salt, bacteria, smoke)?
Precipitation that forms when both air and ground temperatures are below 0°C, causing water vapor to form ice crystals that clump together into flakes
What is snow?
The process where water moves into soil and rock layers on Earth's surface through small cracks and pores
What is infiltration?
The frigid continent that has a cold, dry climate because year-round freezing temperatures prevent snow from melting and limit evaporation from the ocean
What is Antarctica?
The primary source of energy that heats liquid water molecules, causing them to speed up, collide, and escape into the air
What is the sun (or solar energy)?
A specific type of cloud that forms when water vapor condenses near ground level
What is fog?
Precipitation that forms during storms when strong wind updrafts repeatedly carry ice pellets through cold regions of a cloud, adding multiple layers of ice until they become heavy
What is hail?
The process where water filters or trickles down through porous land surfaces and eventually moves back into lakes and oceans
What is percolation?
The California desert where limited precipitation evaporates rapidly, producing a hot and dry climate
What is the Mojave Desert?
The general term for any series of events that repeat in the same order over and over again, like water continuously moving between Earth's surface and atmosphere
What is a cycle?
Ice crystals that form directly on solid surfaces when the dew point is below freezing
What is frost?
Precipitation that forms when raindrops fall through a cold layer of air below 0°C and freeze into solid ice pellets before hitting the ground
What is sleet?
The two natural drivers that work together to continuously move water molecules through Earth's systems
What are energy from the sun and gravity?
Name two of the five factors listed in the text that influence an area's climate patterns
What are latitude, altitude, distance from large bodies of water, ocean currents, or global prevailing winds? (Any two)