Unit 1B

Question 1

What is the difference between weather and climate?

Answer 1

Weather is the conditions in the atmosphere at a particular place and time, while climate is the weather conditions in an area over time

Question 2

What is a climatic region?

Answer 2

A region that experiences similar temperatures and precipitation

Question 3

What influences the temperature of a region?

Answer 3

It’s latitude and elevation; the higher the elevation or the closer to the poles, the colder it is; large bodies of water and ocean currents also influence

Question 4

How do large bodies of water influence the temperature of a region?

Answer 4

Since water takes longer to heat up and cool down, it stabilizes long-term temperature patterns.

Question 5

How do ocean currents influence climate?

Answer 5

A warm ocean current that passes close to land will warm the air and raise temperatures. A cold ocean current will cool the air over land that it passes.

Question 6

What determines if a region has a wet or dry climate, and what influences it?

Answer 6

The annual precipitation; the prevailing winds and presence or absence of mountains

Question 7

What determines the amount of water in an air mass?

Answer 7

Where the prevailing winds come from; those originating over land are dryer than those originating over water

Question 8

How do mountains have an effect on precipiation?

Answer 8

Mountains cause air to rise, and forces water out of the air on one side, so that when it reaches the other side the air has little to no water left

Question 9

What is rain shadow?

Answer 9

The side of a mountain that has a dry climate because precipitation falls mainly on the other side

Question 10

What effect does a lake have on weather?

Answer 10

During the winter, lakes such as Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are warmer than the land. Warm, moist air rises from them. When cold, arctic air blows across the lakes, it picks up the moisture. The moist air rises and forms clouds, which cool, condense, and precipitate moisture in the form of snow.

Question 11

What are urban heat islands?

Answer 11

The effect of the built environment of a city retaining heat and therefore maintaining a higher temperature than surrounding countryside

Question 12

How do urban heat islands effect precipitation?

Answer 12

Warm air rising over the city can produces rain clouds, which produce precipitation in downwind areas

Question 13

What is the urban canyon effect?

Answer 13

Tall buildings disrupt air, causing them to break up into broken airstreams, then can combine and reinforce into a wind faster than the original wind; this is called resonance

Question 14

What is a climograph?

Answer 14

A graphic representation of at least two climatic factors for an area

Question 15

What questions can you ask to compare weather?

Answer 15

What is the latitude of the location? (higher latitudes typically mean lower temperatures)
Where do the prevailing winds come from? (sea winds provide a steadier temperature than land winds)
How high above sea level is the location? (the higher, the colder)
Are mountain ranges nearby? (can cause increased rainfall, or no rainfall at all; and diverted winds can produce maritime climate)
Which air masses influence the location? (those one land are drier than those on sea, and those in the tropics are warmer than those in the polar)

Question 16

What are the five main climatic zones, plus extra one?

Answer 16

Tropical wet
Dry
Temperate Marine
Temperate Continental
Polar
Highlands

Question 17

What are the two different types of tropical climates?

Answer 17

Tropical wet - receives at least 6 cm rain a month and are always at least 18°C
Tropical wet-and-dry - very hot, alternating periods of wet and dry depending on the season

Question 18

When is a climate dry?

Answer 18

When the rate of evaporation is greater than the rate of rainfall

Question 19

What are the two different dry climates?

Answer 19

Arid - less than 25 cm of precipitation a year, some years even no precipitation
Semiarid - between 25-50 cm of precipitation a year; low bushes and short grasses

Question 20

What is a temperate marine climate?

Answer 20

It is humid with mild winters

Question 21

What are the three different types of temperate marine climates?

Answer 21

Marine west coast climate - has the coolest temperatures
Mediterranean climate - two seasons: cool, rainy winter and warmer, dry summer
Humid subtropical climate - hot summers and rainy winters

Question 22

What are the two different types of temperate continental climate?

Answer 22

Humid continental climate - Extremely cold winters and extremely hot summers
Subarctic climate - short, cool summers and long, cold winters

Question 23

What are the two different types of polar climate?

Answer 23

Ice-cap climate - always covered with ice and show, very dry
Tundra climate - short, cool summers and long, extremely cold winters

Question 24

What is the highland climate?

Answer 24

Controlled more by elevation, and can have several climatic zones

Question 25

What determines the biome of an area?

Answer 25

The climate of the area

Question 26

What are the major biomes of the earth’s surface?

Answer 26

Rain forest
Desert
Grassland
Deciduous forest
Boreal forest
Tundra
Polar

Question 27

What biomes is the rain forest biome subdivided into?

Answer 27

Temperate rain forest - Moderate temperature, tremendous amounts of rain, tall trees
Tropical rain forest - Warm and wet, extreme amounts of rain, near equator, biologically diverse; canopy and understory

Question 28

Grassland biome facts

Answer 28

In semiarid climates
More rain than desert, but not enough for trees
Shrubs, grasses, nonwoody plants
Populated by largest animals on earth

Question 29

Deciduous forest facts

Answer 29

Larger trees grow here
Animals that live her hibernate or migrate in winter

Question 30

Boreal forest facts

Answer 30

Too cold for deciduous tree
Conifer trees grow here (produce cones. have needle for leaves)

Question 31

Tundra biome facts

Answer 31

Very cold, very dry; pretty much cold desert
Plants have adaptations for cold and lack of water; mosses, grasses, lichens

Question 32

Polar biome facts

Answer 32

Always covered in snow/ice
Animals live in water around ice, not in it

Question 33

What amount of radiation that enters the earth’s atmosphere reaches the surface?

Answer 33

Half

Question 34

What happens when solar radiation is reflected?

Answer 34

It becomes a longer wavelength, and then is absorbed by water vapor and carbon dioxide

Question 35

What are greenhouse gases?

Answer 35

Gases in the earth’s atmosphere that cause heat to be trapped

Question 36

How do human activities cause an increase in greenhouse gases?

Answer 36

They burn fossil fuels and clear rain forests to increase carbon dioxide
Landfills, farming practices, and the installation of natural gas pipelines increase methane
The use of refrigerants, fire suppressants, and other manufacturing techniques can release chlorofluorocarbons into the air

Question 37

How do scientists determine how temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations changed over time?

Answer 37

They study ice cores (drilling holes deep into ancient glaciers and looking at the air bubbles in them, then look at pollen and stuff to see what plants grew)
They look at tree rings and fossils (the thickness of the rings depends on the warmth of summer months, and rainfall of the area; fossils show what beings lived in that area, and thus the climate of that area)

Question 38

How fast does climate change occur, and what consequences does it have?

Answer 38

Very slowly; dramatic consequences

Question 39

What might cause long term climate to change?

Answer 39

changes in earth’s position with respect to the sun, changes in energy from the sun, plate movement, blocking of the sun’s light (such as from eruptions or asteroid impacts)

Question 40

What might cause short term climate to change?

Answer 40

El Nino Years
La Nina Years

Question 41

What is an El Nino year, and what climate changes does it cause?

Answer 41

the trade winds near the equator move from west to east—opposite from normal years; Winters in Canada and the northern United States are milder, there are fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, and the desert southwest in the United States gets more rainfall, prevents upwelling; places that normally don’t get rain get more, those that do get less, warm water

Question 42

What is a La Nina years, and what climate changes does it cause?

Answer 42

Temperatures are cooler than normal in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. This event also affects global weather patterns. Places that don’t get rain get even less, those that do get even more, cold water