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59 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is the most important gas in the atmosphere?
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water vapor
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What is a calorie?
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The amount of heat to required to raise the temp of 1 gram of water 1 degree C.
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What is latent heat?
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The heat absorbed or released during a change in state.
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What is evaporation?
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The process of converting a liquid to a gas. (heat absorbed)
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What is condensation?
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The process whereby water vapor changes to the liquid state. (heat released)
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What is freezing?
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The change of state from a liquid to a solid.(heat released)
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What is sublimation?
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The conversion of a solid directly to a gas, w/out passing through the liquid state. (heat absorbed)
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What is deposition?
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The conversion of a vapor directly to a solid. (heat released)
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What is humidity?
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The general term for the amount of water vapor in air.
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What is saturation?
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The max. possible quantity of water vapor that the air can hold at any given temp. and pressure.
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What is vapor pressure?
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The part of the total atmospheric pressure attributable to water-vapor content.
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What is the mixing ratio?
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The mass of water vapor in a unit of air compared to the remaining mass of dry air.
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What is relative humidity?
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The ration of the air's actual water-vapor content to its potential water-vapor capacity at a given temp.
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What is the dew-point temp or dew point?
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The temp. to which air would have to be cooled to reach saturation.
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When the water vapor content remains at a constant level,a decrease in air temp. does what to the relative humidity/
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It increases it. and an increase in temp. causes a decrease in relative humidity.
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What does a high dew-point temp indicate?
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Moist air
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What does a low dew-point temp. indicate?
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Dry air.
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What is a hygrometer?
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It measures relative humidity.
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What are adiabatic temp. changes?
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Cooling or warming of air caused when air is allowed to expand or is compressed, not because heat is added or subtracted.
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What is a parcel?
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An imaginary volume of air enclosed in a thin elastic cover. a few hundred cubic meters in volume. acts independently of surrounding air.
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What is the dry adiabatic rate?
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The rate of adiabatic cooling or warming in unsaturated air. The rate of temp change is 1 degree C per 100 meters.
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What is the wet adiabatic rate?
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The rate of adiabatic temp change in saturated air. the rate of temp change is variable but is always less than the dry rate.
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What is orographic lifting?
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air is forced to rise over a mountainous barrier.
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What is frontal wedging?
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warmer, less dense air is forced over cooler, denser air.
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What is convergence?
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a pileup of horizontal air flow results in upward movement.
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What is localized convective lifting?
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unequal surface heating causes localized pockets of air to rise because of their buoyancy.
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What is a rainshadow desert?
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A dry region on the lee side of a mountain range. many middle latitude deserts are this type.
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What is a front?
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The boundary between two adjoining air masses having contrasting characteristics.
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What is stable air?
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Air that resists vertical displacement.
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What are thermals?
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Rising parcel of warmer air.
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What is unstable air?
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Air that doesn't resist vertical displacement.
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What is absolute stability?
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The condition of air that has an environmental lapse rate that is less than the wet adiabatic rate.
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What is absolute instability?
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The condition of air that has an environmental lapse rate that is greater than the dry adiabatic rate ( 1 C per 100 meters)
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What is conditional instability?
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The condition of moist air with an environmental lapse rate between the dry and we adiabatic rates.
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What is condensation nuclei?
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Tiny bits of particulate matter that serve as surfaces on which water vapor condenses.
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What is hydroscopic nuclei?
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Condensation nuclei having a high affinity for water, such as salt particles.
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What are clouds?
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A form of condensation that is a visible aggregate of minute droplets of water or tiny crystals of ice.
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What are the 3 basic types of clouds?
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cirrus, cumulus, and stratus
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Describe a cirrus cloud.
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High, white, thin and have a feathery appearance.
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Describe a cumulus cloud.
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They consist of globular individual cloud masses and have a cauliflower look to them.
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Describe a stratus cloud.
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They are sheets or layers that cover much or all of the sky.
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What are the 3 levels of cloud height/
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high, middle, and low.
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What hight are high clouds at?
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have bases above 6000 meters
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What hight are middle clouds at?
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from 2000 to 6000 meters
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What hight are low clouds at?
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below 2000 meters
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What are clouds of vertical development?
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A cloud that has its base in the low height range but extends upward into the middle or high altitudes.
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What is fog?
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A cloud with its base at or very near Earth's surface.
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What is advection fog?
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A fog formed when warm, moist air is blown over a cool surface.
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What is radiation fog?
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Fog resulting from radiation heat loss by Earth.
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What is upslope fog?
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Fog created when air moves up a slope and cools adiabatically.
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How are evaporation fogs formed?
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when the saturation of air occurs primarily because of the addition of water vapor.
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What is steam fog?
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Fog having the appearance of steam; produced by evaporation from a warm-water surface into the cool air above.
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What is frontal or precipitation fog?
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Fog formed when rain evaporates as it falls through a layer of cool air.
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What is rain?
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Drops of water that fall from a cloud and have a diameter of at least.5 millimeters.
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What is snow?
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A solid form of precipitation produced by sublimation of water vapor.
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What is sleet?
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Frozen or semi-frozen rain formed when raindrops freeze as they pass through a layer of cold air.
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What is freezing rain or glaze?
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A coating of ice on objects formed when supercooled rain freezes on contact.
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What is hail?
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Nearly spherical ice pellets having concentric layers and formed by the successive freezing of layers of water.
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What is rime?
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A thin coating of ice on objects produced when supercooled fog droplets freeze on contact.
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