Es 140 Exam I Part Ii

Front 1

What is ageostrophic flow and geostrophic flow?

Back 1

Ageostrophic=Coriolis + Pressure Gradient Force + Friction

Geostrophic=Coriolis + Pressure Gradient Force

Front 2

What are air masses?

Back 2

Pockets of air with uniform properties

Front 3

How are air masses classified?

Back 3

cA=very cold/very dry
cP=cold/dry
cT=hot/dry
mP=cold/damp
mT=warm/damp

Front 4

What is a blizzard?

Back 4

Cold temperatures, low visibility, high winds, lasts for several days

Front 5

What is an ice storm?

Back 5

Doesn't need cold temperatures, combination of freezing rain and sleet, leaves behind a coating of ice

Front 6

How are thunderstorms formed?

Back 6

1)Warm moist air near the surface is lifted up and it cools.
2)Condensation causes release of latent heat
2)Latent heat adds energy to the atmosphere and causes additional uplift.
3)Precipitation occurs and only stops when the down drafts shut off the storm

Front 7

How does lightning form?

Back 7

1)During the process of condensation, the positive and negative charges separate
2) The positive charges move upwards while the negative charges move downwards
3) The charges are attracted to each other and they move either upwards or downwards towards each other

Front 8

What is heat lightning?

Back 8

Lightning that occurs so far away that the thunder can't be heard

Front 9

What is a downburst?

Back 9

An isolated, intense downdraft during a thunderstorm that is caused by the huge pockets of cold air collapsing

Front 10

What are tornadoes?

Back 10

Violently rotating columns of air

Front 11

How are tornadoes formed?

Back 11

1)Wind shear near the surface moving in the opposite direction of the wind higher up.
2)Some sort of local uplift is needed to lift the rotating air column
3)Wall cloud is formed once the rotating mass is in the air
4)Smaller funnel clouds come off the the wall cloud and when they touch down they become tornadoes

Front 12

Characteristics of tornadoes

Back 12

1)Usually 1km in diameter on the ground
2)Travel at about 50-80 km/hr
3)Wind speeds can reach up to 500 km/hr
4)Last about 30 minutes
5)Occur from spring to early summer

Front 13

How are tornadoes classified?

Back 13

Classified using the Fujita Scale and the Enhanced Fujita Scale which measure wind speed

Front 14

What is a tropical cyclone and what is a hurricane/typhoon?

Back 14

Tropical cyclones occur near southeast Asia, Australia, and the eastern coast of Africa. Typhoons occurs near China and Japan and hurricanes occur in the Atlantic

Front 15

What is needed for a tropical cyclone?

Back 15

Thick layer of warm water, can't be withing 500 km of the equator, an unstable air column, little wind shear

Front 16

When is hurricane season in the Atlantic

Back 16

June 1-November 30

Front 17

How are hurricanes classified?

Back 17

By using the Saffir-Simpson scale which measures wind speeds

Front 18

What was the costliest hurricane? What was the deadliest hurricane?

Back 18

Costliest=Great Miami Hurricane
Deadliest=Bhola, Bangladesh (World);Galveston, Texas (U.S.)

Front 19

What is a wave?

Back 19

Energy travelling through a medium

Front 20

What is wavelength? Period? Amplitude? Frequency?

Back 20

Wavelength=Distance from the top of one part of the wave to the top of the end of the wave

Period=The distance from the top of wave to the top/bottom of the next bump in the wave

Amplitude=distance from the top/bottom of the wave to the level plane

Frequency= 1/period

Front 21

What is a compressional wave?

Back 21

Medium moves parallel to direction of wave motion (sound wave)

Front 22

What is a transverse wave?

Back 22

Medium moves perpendicular to the direction that the wave moves (ocean waves)

Front 23

What causes waves?

Back 23

Wind is the main cause of wave because the wind transfers energy from the atmosphere to the ocean

Front 24

What determines the size of ocean waves?

Back 24

1)Wind speed
2)Fetch=the area over which the wind blows (the bigger the area the bigger the wave)
3)Duration of the wind=the longer the wind blows, the larger the wave

Front 25

What are deep water waves?

Back 25

Waves that particles do not touch the ocean floor. The particle motion is a circular. The longer the wavelength the faster the wave.

Front 26

What are shallow water waves?

Back 26

Waves whose particles hit the ocean floor and are squeezed into elliptical motion. Shallow water waves speed depend on water depth. The deeper the water the faster the wave moves.

Front 27

What is the wave base?

Back 27

The area where water no longer moves due to the wave. The bottom of the wave in deep water.

Front 28

Why do waves break?

Back 28

Waves break because as they get to shallower and shallower water their particle motion gets squeezed more and more and they keep going upwards and eventually they are pulled down because they can't be supported in such shallow water.

Front 29

What is wave refraction and what does it do to incoming waves and coastlines?

Back 29

If waves come in diagonally to the shoreline, the side closer to the beach slows down while the other side which is moving faster catches up. The wave crashes before the wave gets in line with the beach and this cause the wave to wash sediment from one part of the beach to another part of the beach.

Front 30

What is longshore current and longshore drift?

Back 30

The longshore current is the current created by refracted waves when they crash and the longshore drift is the sediment that is carried from one part of the beach to another

Front 31

What structures are used to mitigate wave-induced erosion?

Back 31

People have put up groins, which are basically stone walls that extend into the ocean, and keep the sand from leaving their beaches.

Front 32

What is a rogue wave?

Back 32

A rogue wave is a large wave that is the result of a large amount of energy that rises and collapses quickly.