Download What is a surface pressure

Pressure & Winds
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Using the ideal gas law, describe how surface pressure can be changed?
What is a surface pressure chart?
What is "reduction of sea-level pressure" and why do we need to do it?
What are constant height and constant pressure surfaces? What is displayed on
each?
On an upper air chart, why do the heights fall as you move north?
Why does pressure decrease as you move northward on a constant height surface
aloft?
Why are higher heights associated with higher temps?
What do ridges and troughs represent on an isobaric chart?
What is a common relationship between troughs/ridges aloft with surface
lows/highs?
What is a force? What are two important characteristics of a force?
How does Newton's Second Law apply to wind generation?
What forces are important for generating winds?
What forces govern winds aloft?
What is the pressure gradient force? How is it defined and calculated?
What is the Coriolis force? What factors impact the Coriolis force?
What is the frictional force? What is the effect of friction?
How is a centripetal acceleration directed?
Why is it necessary to employ the centrifugal force to balance flow?
What is geostrophic flow? What determines the magnitude of the geostrophic flow?
What is gradient flow?
What forces are involved in surface winds?
How are areas of convergence and divergence generated at the surface by midlatitude weather systems?
Why is it generally cloudy in the vicinity of a low pressure area and sunny in the
vicinity of high pressure?
In what layer of the atmosphere is friction important in affecting the wind?
How is wind direction defined?
Air Masses & Fronts
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How are air masses classified?
What are the characteristics of the air masses that commonly affect weather over
North America?
What is a front?
What are the types of fronts? What symbol is used to represent these on a surface
weather map?
What are the characteristics of cold fronts & warm fronts?
What do the vertical profiles of each different type of front look like?
What are the typical weather observations during frontal passage for each kind of
front?
What kinds of clouds are produced by each kind of front? Why?
Mid-Latitude Cyclones
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How does the thermal gradient in the mid-latitudes differ in January and July?
What is the importance of mid-latitude wave cyclones in terms of atmospheric
energy?
What is the best arrangement of surface and upper level features (i.e., low pressure
centres) for the intensification of a mid-latitude cyclone?
How must surface convergence compare to upper level divergence in order for a
surface LOW to intensify?
How must surface divergence compare to upper level convergence in order for a
surface HIGH to intensify?
What are long and short waves? How do they differ?
How do short waves generate baroclinic instability (see text)?
What is cold -air advection? What is warm-air advection? How do they create
vertical motions?
What are the 3-dimensional relationships between surface features and features at
upper levels.
General Circulation
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How is heat actually transported from (i) the tropics to the sub-tropics; (ii) the subtropics to the polar regions.
Describe the generation of the easterly trades and the mid-latitude westerlies.
What feature of the general circulation contributes to the dry weather in the subtropics?