Download Chapter 2 Review Guide

Grade 6: Chapter 2 Review Guide
- Air pressure is the push of air molecules
- Air pressure decreases with altitude
- Less air pushing down from above
- Lower air pressure = lower density of air
- Air moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure
- Barometers are used to measure air pressure
- Weather is the condition of Earth’s atmosphere at a specific time and place
- Wind is air that moves horizontally from high pressure to low pressure
- The Coriolis effect is the curving of winds because Earth turns beneath them
- Be able to identify the following wind belts and calm regions:
- Trade winds
- Doldrums
- Westerlies
- Horse Latitudes
- Easterlies
- Jet streams are high altitude fast bands of wind
- 2 per hemisphere, affect weather, affect plane travel
- Understand how wind moves for:
- sea breezes/ land breezes
- mountain breezes/ valley breezes
- Monsoons change direction with season due to heating/ cooling of land vs. sea
- dry wind blows to sea in winter, moist wind blows to land brings rain in summer
- Evaporation is when liquid changes to gas
- Condensation is when gas changes to liquid
- Precipitation is when water falls to Earth’s surface
- Dew is condensation on solid surfaces in cool air
- Frost is when ice forms on solid surfaces
- Humidity is the amount of water vapor in air
- Saturation is the most water vapor air can possibly hold (evaporation = condensation)
- Relative humidity is a comparison of how much water air could possible hold to how much it water it
has in it at that time
- Dew point is the temperature where air reaches saturation
- Clouds are condensed water vapor
- Cirrus are wispy, high altitude, ice crystals, usually mean fair weather
- Cumulus are puffy white usually mean fair weather, can produce showers if they grow
- Cumulonimbus are thunderheads
- Stratus are sheet like, block sun, mean steady rain
- Fog is clouds at ground level
- Precipitation is when droplets combine until they are too heavy and fall to Earth
- Rain gauges are used to measure rain
- Rulers are used to measure snow depth, we can also measure the amount of water in snow
- Rain reaches Earth as a liquid (drizzle is light rain)
- Freezing rain is liquid that freezes when it hits the ground
- Sleet is small pellets of ice
- Snow is frozen flakes formed from ice crystals
- Hail is large balls of ice with layers formed during strong storms
- Acid rain is rain that has more acid than normal from pollution
- Damages lakes, trees, statues, buildings