Atmosphere
What is the mixture of gasses that surrounds a planet or moon?
Atmosphere
What is the movement of air caused by differences in air pressure?
Wind
What is a large body of air where temperature and moisture content are constant throughout?
Air Mass
What are the three severe weather events we have talked about?
Tornadoes, Hurricanes, and Thunderstorms
What is climate?
The average weather condition in an area over a long period of time.
What is the measure of the force with which air molecules push on a surface?
Air Pressure
What is weather?
The short term state of the atmosphere, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, and visibility.
What is a weather front?
The boundary between air masses of different densities and usually different temperatures.
Thunderstorms create two things, one is an electric discharge that takes place between two oppositely charged surfaces, such as between a cloud and the ground, between two clouds, or between two parts of the same cloud. The other is the sounds caused by the rapid expansion of air along an electrical strike. Name each of these.
The first is lightning. The second is thunder.
List the climate zones in order of their distance from the equator.
Tropic
Temperate
Polar
Name the four layers of that atmosphere.
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere.
In class, we discussed four tools that meteorologists can use to predict the weather, please name three of those four tools.
Thermometer, Barometer, Anemometer, and Radar
Explain the movement of air masses that causes a cold front and what kind of weather we could expect to see.
Cold air masses move into an area of warm air.
The denser cold air forces the warm air to rise quickly.
The warm air condenses very quickly.
Cold fronts bring heavy rain, thunderstorms, and snow.
What is main difference between cyclones and anticyclones?
Cyclones are areas that have lower pressure than the surrounding area. Anticyclones are areas that have higher pressure than the surrounding area.
Ice ages contain two different periods of time. Name those two periods and explain how they are different from one another.
Glacial Period: the time period where sheets of ice are advancing, growing larger, and lower sea level
Interglacial period: the time period where sheets of ice are melting, getting smaller, and making sea levels rise.
What type of particles are in the ionosphere that absorb energy and produce ions that radiate energy as shimmering lights? What are these shimmering lights called?
Oxygen; auroras.
You were asked to list three tools meteorologists can use to predict the weather. For the tools you listed, explain what purpose they play in predicting weather.
Thermometer: measures and indicates the temperature.
Barometer: measures the atmospheric pressure.
Anemometers: measures the wind speed.
Radar: used to find location, movement, and amount of precipitation.
Explain the movement of air masses that causes an occluded front and what kind of weather we could expect to see.
Warm air is moving slowly into an area of cold air.
Another faster moving cold air mass overtakes the warm air mass, forcing it to rise quickly.
The warm air condenses quickly.
Occluded fronts bring cool temperatures and large amounts of rain and snow.
What must happen in order for a funnel cloud to become a tornado?
It must touch the ground.
As a result of human activity and natural factors, the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere have increased in recent history. Explain the effect greenhouse gasses have on Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere and its effect on average global temperatures.
Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere cause average global temperatures to rise because the greenhouse gasses trap sunlight and thermal energy inside the atmosphere, through a process called the greenhouse effect.
Why would the thermosphere not actually feel hot if you stood in it?
Because the density of the air is so low that the heat energy is rarely transferred.
Find the relative humidity using the following formula and conditions:
Actual water vapor content/maximum water vapor content x 100 = relative humidity (%)
Temperature = 78℉
Wind Direction = Northwest
Wind Speed = 40 MPH
Measured water vapor content = 140 g/m3
Maximum water vapor content = 1000 g/m3
14%
How do air masses affect precipitation in a local area?
Air masses move into areas of other air masses. When they have different temperatures and densities, one will rise. That air will condense and create clouds, which will lead to precipitation.
What wind speed must a tropical storm reach in order for it to become a hurricane?
120km/h
How could volcanic eruptions or asteroid impacts potentially cause an ice age?
Both send ash and debris into the atmosphere.
Ash and debris block out the sunlight and thermal energy.
Lower sunlight and thermal energy lowers the average temperature of the Earth.
Low enough temperatures can cause an ice age.