Download ATMOSPHERE COMPOSITION What are the major constituents of

ATMOSPHERE COMPOSITION
What are the major constituents of the atmosphere?
Where is most of the Earth's naturally occurring ozone located?
What is the major reason that the temperature increases with height in the stratosphere?
What is/was responsible for ozone destruction in the stratosphere?
How has the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) varied over the last 50 years?
How does atmospheric pressure change with height above the surface?
What is the tropopause?
ATMOSPHERIC ENERGY
What is the source of nearly all atmospheric energy?
What is meant by the "conservation of energy"?
What is conduction? In the atmosphere, where is conduction usually strongest?
How is the molecular motion within a substance related to its temperature?
How is an object's temperature related to the amount of radiation emitted by the object?
How is an object's temperature related to the wavelength of radiation emitted by the object?
Is energy released or absorbed from the environment when water vapor condenses into water
vapor?
What is a selective absorber/emitter?
How does the atmospheric greenhouse effect work?
What is convection (how is heat transferred via convection?)
What is kinetic energy? What is potential energy?
What does specific heat mean?
SEASONAL AND DAILY CYCLE
What causes the seasons?
Why is summer warmer than winter?
What are 3 factors that determine the amount of solar energy reaching the surface at a specific
location?
What is a temperature inversion?
What is a radiation temperature inversion? How is it formed?
How will the air temperature near the surface be impacted by changes in wind speed during the
day? During the night?
How can clouds impact the surface temperature?
How is heat transferred from the tropics to the polar regions?
If two cities have the same latitude, but one is on the coast and the other in the middle of a large
continent, how will their normal summer temperatures differ? Normal winter temperatures?
Why is the highest temperature during the day usually around 2-3pm even though the sun is
highest in the sky around noon?
HUMIDITY
What is specific humidity? What is relative humidity?
How is the difference between air temperature and dew point temperature related to the relative
humidity?
How is the wind speed related to the rate of evaporation?
What is meant by saturation?
How does the saturation value change as air temperature changes?
How does the relative humidity of an airmass change if it is cooled? or warmed? (assume no
water vapor added or removed).
How can the ocean temperature at coastal locations impact the relative humidity?
How does relative humidity usually vary during the 24-hour day?
How is dew formed?
FOG AND CLOUDS
What are hygroscopic condensation nuclei?
What is a dry haze? A wet haze?
How does radiation fog form?
Radiation fog is most likely to form in winter. Why winter?
How does radiation fog usually dissipate?
How does advection fog form?
What is the difference between stratus clouds and cumulus clouds?
How can infrared satellite measurements provide information on the height of clouds?
STABILITY
What happens when air rises? When it sinks?
How can the amount of water vapor in air impact the cooling rate as it rises?
Why are the dry adiabatic lapse rate and the moist adiabatic lapse rate different?
What is the environmental lapse rate?
How could you make the atmosphere more unstable? More stable?
How are clouds usually formed?
What processes can often lead to rising air?
What type of clouds would you expect to form in a stable atmosphere? In an unstable
atmosphere?
PRECIPITATION
Cloud droplets that initially form in a cloud usually do not fall as precipitation. Why not?
What processes lead to the formation of precipitation?
How does the collision-coalescence process work?
Would you expect bigger or small rain drops from a tall cloud (relative to a short cloud)? Why?
How does the ice-crystal process work?
What is meant by the term "supercooled water"?
What is meant by terminal velocity? What forces are in balance when terminal velocity is
achieved?
Why do large raindrops fall faster than small raindrops?
How does sleet form? How does frozen rain form?
ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS
What is white light?
What is the difference between reflection and scattering?
Why is the sky blue?
Why are sunsets/sunrises often red?
How do rainbows form?
What is refraction of light?
Where would a rainbow be located relative at sunrise? at sunset?
PRESSURE AND FORCES
What force is usually responsible for the initiation of wind?
What is an isobar?
What is a 500 mb height map?
The average 500 mb height decreases from the tropics to the poles. Why?
What is the pressure gradient force? How is it directed with respect to high and low pressure?
What causes the coriolis force?
What will happen to a moving object if there is no net force on the object?
What factors determine the strength of the coriolis force?
Why does the wind not blow directly from high pressure areas to low pressure areas?
What is the centripetal force?
What direction does the wind flow around high and low pressures in the N. Hemisphere?
Why do winds near the surface tend to be directed across the isobars?
LOCAL WIND SYSTEMS
How is the size of atmospheric circulations related to their lifetimes?
What is a westerly wind?
Do ocean currents cause the winds? Or do the atmospheric winds cause the ocean currents?
What is meant by "prevailing wind"? How is this related to the orientation of airport runways?
How is the force exerted by a wind related to the wind speed?
What is an "onshore" and "offshore" wind?
Why might wind change direction as it moves over a large lake?
Why are Santa Ana winds warm? and dry (low relative humidity)?
How is the wind at the surface directed in a sea breeze circulation? in a land breeze?
How long does a sea breeze circulation last? (hourly, daily, monthly or longer??)
At the surface, how is convergence (or divergence) related to air movement in the vertical
direction?
What can cause clear-air turbulence and eddies?
What causes the sea-breeze circulation?
What causes the monsoon circulation in Southern Asia?
How are the winds oriented (onshore or offshore) during the summer monsoon in Asia? Is the
summer monsoon a period of wet or dry weather? Why?
GLOBAL WIND SYSTEMS and AIR MASSES
What is the typical surface wind direction in the mid-latitudes (30-60°)
When do the semi-permanent high pressure regions reach their maximum and minimum
intensities?
Why are the world's major deserts located near 30° latitude?
Where is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) located?
How does the Pacific High influence weather along the U.S. Pacific coast? How does the
Bermuda High influence weather along the U.S. Atlantic coast?
What causes the polar front jet to form?
Where are the Hadley Cells found? How does air move within these cells (where is it
rising/sinking)?
What are the tradewinds? Where are they located?
What is a jet streak?
What is meant by divergence?
How will convergence of air aloft affect the surface pressure?
What is a cold front? How does the cold and warm air interact near the cold front?
EL NINO
What does "anomaly" mean?
During an El Nino event, how do weaker than normal tradewinds impact the SST in the Eastern
Tropical Pacific Ocean (near Peru)?
During an El Nino event, how and where does the SST change?
During an El Nino event, how are precipitation anomalies related to SST anomalies in the
tropical Pacific Ocean?
How can El Nino events in the tropical Pacific Ocean affect weather in California?
THUNDERSTORMS AND TORNADOES
How does a gust front in a thunderstorm form?
Why do ordinary thunderstorms dissipate after about 1 hour?
What is vertical wind shear?
What is entrainment?
What processes are responsible for downdraft formation?
How does vertical shear help produce severe thunderstorms?
Where is the highest frequency of thunderstorms in the U.S?
Where is the highest frequency of tornadoes in the US? And why is it not located where the
highest thunderstorm frequency is at?
How is lightning produced? How is thunder produced?
How does hail form? What needs to happen for hail to grow to a very large size?
Why is lightning not observed in all clouds?
HURRICANES
What conditions are necessary for hurricane formation?
What is the vertical structure of a hurricane - where is air rising and sinking?
What is an "easterly wave"? How does an easterly wave help in hurricane formation?
How does the air enter a hurricane near the surface and exit at the top of the hurricane?
What is a "storm surge" and how is it produced?
Why don't we see hurricanes off the coast of San Diego?
What is the main energy source for a hurricane?
Why is the "eye" of a hurricane usually cloud free?
Why don't we observe hurricanes on the equator?
Why do hurricanes only form over water?
Why does vertical wind shear tend to inhibit hurricane formation?
CLIMATE CHANGE
What is the difference between "climate" and "weather"?
How does the average global sea level change as the average global temperature increases?
How has the global mean temperature changed over the last 100 years?
What is meant by the term albedo?
How do we think "continental drift" has impacted Earth's surface temperature?
How can changes in Earth's orbit impact the mean surface temperature?
How can volcanoes affect the Earth's surface temperature?
What are the uncertainties in computer models of the atmosphere?
What is a positive (or negative) feedback mechanism?
What are some of the possible mechanisms responsible for past changes in Earth's climate?
How can clouds impact the surface temperature?
How has the size of the Arctic ice cap changed over the last 30 years?
Where are the largest temperature changes expected to take place due to warming from
anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions?
AIR POLLUTION
How can particulates (aerosols) released during fossil fuel burning impact surface temperatures?
How are subsidence inversions produced?
How is ozone pollution (in the troposphere) produced?
Why is Los Angeles so prone to air pollution?
Why are high levels of pollutants often observed when a subsidence inversion is present? Where
would the pollutants be located?
What is a "secondary pollutant"? What is an example of a secondary pollutant?
MISCELLANEOUS
What is the lifting condensation level (LCL)?
How does the relative location of the LCL and the base of a temperature inversion determine
whether low-level marine stratus clouds may form over So Cal coastal areas?