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10 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are air masses? What are the masses based on land and ocean? What are the masses based on latitude? What is the code for a combo of land/ocean and latitude-based masses? |
-Air masses are large bodies of air that have similar characteristics all throughout. -Maritime is ocean (moist), continental is land (dry). -In order from closest to equator to farthest: equatorial (warm), tropical (warm), polar (cold), arctic (cold). -Coding is cA for Continental Arctic (cold and dry), mP for Maritime Tropical (warm and moist), and so on. |
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What are fronts? Describe the fronts: Cold? Warm? Stationary? Occluded? |
-Fronts are boundaries between air masses with changes in characteristics. -Cold: Cold mass replacing warm mass, heavy rain, thunderstorms, fast temp drop. -Warm: Warm mass replacing cold mass, temperature rises, little to no rain. -Stationary: An air mass pauses or moves slowly, dry mass has no rain/wet mass has lots. -Occluded: Cold mass overtakes warm mass, temp drops, continuous rain. |
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What's a cyclone and an anticyclone? What is midlatitude cyclone? Stages and effects? |
-Cyclone: Air converges and rises, low pressure, cloudy, rain. Anticyclone is opposite. -Midlatitude cyclone: Weak or powerful storm, strong and frequent in winter, middle and high latitudes, 3-6 days, goes west to east. -Midlatitude's stages are Initial (stationary front), Cyclogenesis (the 2 air fronts diverge; wind circles; rain), Open (more rain, more wind), Occluded (occluded front forms; rain continues), dissolving (moisture, rain, & clouds die off). |
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What's a tornado? Tornado development? Rough description of Enhanced Fujita Intensity? |
-Tornado: Funnel of air & clouds spinning at 110-225 mph. Weak ones last a few minutes hitting hundreds of meters; strong ones last hours, hitting hundreds of kilometers. -1. Cold western wind on top, warm Southern wind on bottom, mix of both in middle. 2. Convection, winds go vertical, thunderstorms. 3. Funnel descends, touching ground. -Enhanced Fujita Scale: EF 0 (65-85 mph winds) means broke tree branches, EF 2 (111-135 mph) means trees get uprooted a little, EF 5 (+200 mph) means tree gets thrown a mile. |
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What is tropical weather? Explain a tropical cyclone in detail: What is it mainly? Different types? Formation? Impact and path? What's the Saffir-Simpson Scale? |
-Tropical: Warm, moist, no fronts, some rain. -Tropical cyclone: Destructive rotating clouds & storms over tropical land or water. -Hurricane (Atlantic & W Pacific), Typhoon (NW Pacific), Cyclone (Indian Ocean, SW Pacific). -Tropical depression (<38 mph), tropical storm (39-73 mph), cyclone or hurricane (74 mph). -Heavy rain and winds, coastal destruction, travels west in tropics, east in mid-latitude. -Category 1 is minimal damage, 3 is extensive damage, 5 is absolutely terrible (like really). |
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What's a Koppen Climate? What are the low latitude climates? |
-Koppen: Based on only temps and rainfall. -Wet equatorial (similar day lengths, unform weather, mE & mT air masses, convection rain), Trade-wind Coastal (heavy rain from June-November, low from March-April, warm temps throughout year), Wet-dry (convection rainfall from mE, dry from cT), Dry Tropical (little rain, temps drop June-Aug). |
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What are the mid-latitude climates? |
-Dry Subtropical (cold/dry winters and hot/dry summers, little rain), Moist Subtropical (warm summer, mild winter, rain every month), Mediterranean (warm/dry summer, mild/wet winter, cT), Marine West-Coast (Mild/wet winters, dry summers), Dry Midlatitude (cold winter, warm summer, little rain, cP and mT), and Moist Continental (Cold winter, warm summer, lots of rain, cP and cA). |
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What are the high latitude climates? |
-Boreal Forest (brutal 6-7 month winter, short summer with long days and little rain, cA), Tundra (little rain, large yearly temp range, cP mP and cA), Ice Sheet (always freezing, brutal winter, snow). |
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What is El Nino Southern Oscillation? What is El Nino's effect? What is North Atlantic Oscillation? What is NAO's positive are negative modes? |
-A climate driver that changes rain, temp, and cyclone frequencies. -Asia Pacific (Less water, crop loss, forest fires, floods, corals and fish affected). -Climate driver that effects rain and temps in eastern and southern U.S. -Positive (jet stream north of southern U.S., warmer SE and colder east), and Negative (jet stream of southern U.S., colder SE, warmer east). |
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What can be used to determine past temps? How much have global temps risen in 100 years? What causes global warming/cooling? How much has CO2 increased from 1750-2012? What are the consequences of climate change? How much might temps change by 2100 (IPCC)? What could have caused this (IPCC)? What could be results of climate shift? What is the Kyoto Protocol of 1997? |
-Historical manuscripts, tree rings, ice, coral. -Temps have risen 1.1 F degrees globally. -CO2 in atmosphere warms, volcanoes cool. -CO2 increased from 280 to 393 ppm. -Arctic thawing, polar sea ice melting, sea level rising, and habitat loss. -Temps might rise by 1.8 F degree. -Greenhouse gases increased 70% 1970-2004. -Early spring, delayed fall, unbalanced distribution of moisture, more storms and stuff. -Industrial nations reduce greenhouse gases by 5%, assist developing non-gas tech. |
