Exam 2 Flashcards
(98 cards)
1
Q
What percentage of solar radiation is absorbed by the Earth?
A
50%
2
Q
What is scattering?
A
Diffusing light in all directions
3
Q
Why is the sky blue?
A
Blue light is scattered more than red air molecules, and blue light is scattered towards our eyes
4
Q
What is reflection?
A
When light is diffused backwards only
5
Q
What is specific humidity (q)?
A
Mass of water vapor/total mass of the air (g/kg)
6
Q
What is mixing ratio (w)?
A
Mass of water vapor/mass of dry air (g/kg)
7
Q
What is vapor pressure (e)?
A
Pressure exerted by water vapor on the air
8
Q
What does it mean when e is higher?
A
There is more water vapor in the air
9
Q
What does evapotranspiration rely on?
A
Solar radiation and how dry the atmosphere is (relative humidity)
10
Q
What is saturation?
A
of evaporating particles=# of condensing particles
11
Q
How is saturation represented with q, w, and e?
A
Qs, Ws, and Es
12
Q
How is relative humidity found?
A
Q/Qs x 100, W/Ws x 100, or E/Es x 100
13
Q
What does it mean when q=qs?
A
Relative humidity = 100%
14
Q
What does Clausius Clapeyron say?
A
Es goes up as temperature goes up
15
Q
What is the dew point temperature?
A
the temperature at which condensation occurs
16
Q
Is q/w/e or qs/ws/es affected by water vapor?
A
q/w/e
17
Q
Is q/w/e or qs/ws/es affected by temperature?
A
qs/ws/es
18
Q
What is dew point temperature a measure of?
A
Water vapor
19
Q
What is dew?
A
Condensation at night due to radiational cooling to dew point temperature
20
Q
When does dew occur?
A
On calm, clear nights with high pressure
21
Q
What is frost?
A
When dew point temperature is below freezing, you get deposition
22
Q
What is condensation nuclei?
A
Dust in the atmosphere
23
Q
What is the effect of condensation nuclei?
A
With lots of condensation nuclei, dew/frost can occur at 75% RH (haze)
24
Q
What is fog?
A
Clouds on the ground
25
What is radiational fog?
Cooling moist air low to the ground to dew point temperature
26
What is advection fog?
Horizontal air flow cools warm air to dew point temp
27
What is upslope fog?
Air going upslope cools to dew point temperature
28
What is mixing fog?
Increased moisture dur to evaporation
29
What are high clouds called?
Cirrus
30
What are middle clouds called?
Alto
31
What are low clouds called?
Stratus
32
What are vertical clouds called?
Cumulus
33
What are rain clouds called?
Nimbus
34
What are cirrus clouds like?
Fair pleasant weather, whisky, could be ahead of a front, have a warming effect
35
What are cirrocumulus clouds like?
Clouds with small, rounded white puffs and ripples
36
What are altostratus clouds like?
Gray or blue sky, cloud covers entire sky, sunlight gets through but no halo
37
What are cirrostratus clouds like?
Cover entire sky, thin, sun or moon can get through with halo
38
What are altocumulus clouds like?
Gray puffy masses rolled in bands or waves, thunderstorm is coming
39
What are nimbostratus clouds like?
Dark gray sky, wet-looking, continuous precipitation, and poor visibility
40
What are stratocumulus clouds like?
Low lumpy clouds in rows or patches as rounded masses with blue sky visible in between, near sunset
41
What are stratus clouds like?
Uniform gray covering entire sky, like fog but doesn't reach the ground, no precipitation
42
What are cumulus clouds like?
Puffy, detached from one another, classic cloud, can grow to cumulus congestous, cools
43
What are cumulonimbus clouds like?
thunderstorm cloud, top expands up to tropopause, fiberous, not sharp on top
44
What are cumulus congestous clouds like?
Sharp, defined top, not fiberous
45
How big is a rain droplet?
2000 um
46
What is cloud condensation nuclei?
Condensation
47
What is ice nuclei?
Deposition
48
What is the temperature of the warm region of a cloud?
Over 0 C
49
What is the temperature of the cold region of a cloud?
Between -40 and 0 C
50
What is the temperature of the glaciated region of a cloud?
Less than -40 C
51
What is the processes of growing water droplets in the warm region of a cloud?
Condensation, collision and coalescence
52
What are the processes of growing water droplets in the cold region of a cloud?
Condensation, deposition, collision and coalescence, accretion, and aggregation
53
What are the processes of growing water droplets in the glaciated region of a cloud?
Deposition, aggregation
54
What is collision and coalescence?
Droplets enter the cloud, and are pushed up into the cloud and back down through updraft, colliding and merging with other droplets along the way
55
What is accretion/ Bergeron-Findeson process?
In the cold portion of a cloud, there are both ice crystal and supercooled liquid, since saturation vapor pressure is greater over water than ice, the ice crystals grow, at the expense of the liquid
56
What is aggregation?
Ice crystals collide and merge (creating snowflakes!)
57
What is the difference between sleet and freezing rain?
While they both involve water unfreezing and refreezing before it hits the ground, sleet freezes well before the ground, meaning it returns to a deep freeze, while freezing rain refreezes almost as it hits the ground
58
How big is an average liquid water droplet?
Over .5 mm
59
Does rain start as rain?
It could, but oftentimes, no
60
What dos large, soggy snow mean?
The air is moist and near freezing
61
What does small, powdery snow mean?
Extreme cold, less moist
62
How does hail grow in a cloud?
Through accretion, but with ice in cumulonimbus clouds
63
Is dry air or moist air heavier?
Dry air
64
What was cloud seeding?
A process that relies on accretion where clouds that have too few ice crystals get ice nuclei added to them through human means, was abandoned
65
How does radar work?
A station sends out microwave pulses, which scatter back towards the transmitter when it encounters a foreign object, the brighter the echo, the more intense the rain is, and the elapsed time between transmission and reception shows distance
66
Is a steeper lapse rate more stable or more unstable?
More unstable
67
What is perturbation?
When an air molecule starts to rise, if it comes back down, it's stable, if it doesn't, it's unstable
68
What leads to clouds?
When air molecules do not come back down, and becomes unstable
69
What is the dry, adiabatic lapse rate?
-10 C/Km
70
What is the moist adiabatic lapse rate?
-6 C/Km
71
What creates stability in the lapse rates?
When environmental lapse rate is lower than both dry and moist lapse rates
72
How do you create more stability?
Cool the surface or warm aloft
73
What is convective instability?
When the lower air is moist and upper air is dry, bottom cools by moist, top by dry
74
What are the 4 ways air can rise?
Convection, lifting along topography, convergence of air in low pressure, lifting along weather fronts
75
What leads to winds?
Forces
76
What is an apparent force?
When you have a rotating frame of reference
77
What force causes winds to blow
Pressure gradient force
78
What is pressure gradient force?
Differential heating causes pressure difference causing winds to blow high to low
79
Why does circulation happen?
Because of pressure differences in height
80
What is the equation for pressure gradient force?
Change in pressure/ change in distance
81
What is the Coriolous force?
Winds and currents are deflected to the right in the NH and left in the SH
82
What is the equation for magnitude?
Fe= 2 Ωv sin(Φ)
83
What does Ω stand for in magnitude?
Rotational speeds of the Earth
84
What does Φ stand for in magnitude?
Latitude
85
What is the equation for angular momentum?
mrv, m= mass, r= distance to axis of rotation, v= velocity
86
What are some real forces?
Pressure gradient force, centripetal, friction, gravity
87
What are some examples of apparent forces?
Coriolus force, centrifugal
88
What is geostrophic wind?
When pgf=cof, no friction, causing wind to move horizontally parallel to isobars
89
What are isobars?
Lines of constant pressure
90
What is gradient wind?
Wind moving in a curved motion around lows and highs
91
What is centripetal?
Wind moving into center of a circle
92
What is centrifugal?
Moving out from a circle
93
What is frictional wind?
Wind within a km of the surface, friction reduces speed, reducing the Coriolis effect, meaning wind blows more towards a low
94
What is the hydrostatic equilibrium?
Pgf going up in the atmosphere (towards lower pressure) it is offset by gravity
95
Why does air near the equator expand into atmosphere further?
Air is warmer, less dense, and more buoyant
96
What is a line of constant pressure map?
A map showing constant pressure surface, where height changes, has contours
97
What is a lines of constant height map?
A map showing constant height surface, where pressure is changing, isobars, most common example is sea-level pressure
98
Why do clouds form at a low?
Because air converges around a low, get pushed up and diverges
