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11 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Describethe various scales of motion and give an example of each. |
microscale - The smallest scale of atmospheric motion, from a fewmeters to a few hundred meters. Example - a gust of wind. mesoscale - "Middle scale", a few km to about 100 km.Example - a thunderstorm. synoptic scale - "Weather map scale", about 100 km to 1,000 km.Example - a mid-latitude storm, like the storms that usually affect us. global scale - Weather patterns ranging over the entire earth. Example -El Nino, global warming.-eid. |
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Whatis wind shear and how does it relate to clear air turbulence? |
Wind shear is an abrupt change inwind speed or direction over a short distance (horizontal or vertical). Clearair turbulence (CAT), which consists of eddies that develop in clear air, canresult from wind shear. Unsuspecting aircraft flying through such eddies, canrise or drop hundreds of meters due to wind shear. |
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Why does a sea breeze blow from seato land and a land breeze from land to sea? |
Adaytime seabreeze occurs when the land heats up faster than the adjacent water,which causes rising motion (convection) over the land. This is turn sets up apressure gradient (relatively low pressure over the land and higher pressureover the water) that results in low level winds blowing from the water onto theland. At night, the land cools down faster than the land, which induces sinkingmotion and higher pressure over the land compared to the water. The result is awind flow reversal, in which the wind blows from the land toward the water. |
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Whichwind will produce clouds: a valley breeze or a mountain breeze? Why? |
A valley breeze (which blows fromthe valley up the mountain) will tend to produce clouds because of orographiclifting and adiabatic cooling. A mountain breeze, which blows downhill, willnot produce clouds because it will result in compression and adiabatic warming. |
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Whatare katabatic winds? How do they form. |
Katabatic winds are formed whencold, dense air rushes downhill from higher to lower elevation, usually alongthe slopes of a mountain range. If there are low points such as gaps or passesin a mountain range, strong gusty winds ("gap" or "pass"winds) may occur in the outflow region on the downslope side of the pass. |
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Explainwhy chinook winds are warm and dry. |
Chinook winds are warm and drybecause they occur on the leeward or downwind side of a mountain range, wherethe air is dry because most moisture has been removed by orographicprecipitation on the windward side of the mountains, and the air is warmed byadiabatic warming as it flows downhill. It ends up even warmer than it startedon the windward side because of the release of latent heat during orographiccloud formation |
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According to Fig. 7.24 (p. 195),most of the United States is located in what wind belt? |
Most of the United States lieswithin the zone of westerlies. |
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Whatis a major El Nino eventfont |
Amajor El Nino event is a semi-periodic (typically every 3-7 years) disruptionof normal climate patterns on earth, resulting from unusual winds and oceancurrents in the tropical Pacific Ocean. It results in abnormally warm oceanwaters in the eastern tropical Pacific and along the west coasts of North andSouth America, and produces major shifts in normal weather patternsmes' |
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Whathappens to the surface pressure at opposite ends of the Pacific Ocean duringthe Southern Oscillation |
Surface pressures at opposite endsof the Pacific Ocean undergo a very large scale east-west oscillation orexchange known as the Southern Oscillation, which has been correlated with ElNino and La Nina events. Scientists do not yet know for sure what theunderlying cause of the Southern Oscillation is. |
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Describehow an ENSO event may influence the weather in different parts of the world. |
ENSO events affect world weatherpatterns because the atmospheric circulation machine is strongly dependent onheat and moisture transfer from ocean to atmosphere in the tropical PacificOcean. Unusually warm or cold water masses in that region can deflect jetstreams and storm tracks from their typical patterns, and bring anomalousfloods or droughts to regions around the world. |
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Whatare the conditions over the tropical eastern and central Pacific Ocean duringthe phenomenon known as La Nina? |
During La Nina events, trade windsin the equatorial Pacific Ocean become stronger than normal, and oceantemperatures become colder than normal. |
