Download Name Period ______ Date

Name ______________________ Period ____________ Date ___________________
Earth Science Assessment Review
Quarter 3
Air Masses and Circulation
Use the diagram below to answer questions 1 – 3 about air masses that affect the United States.
1. Name and describe air mass #1.
2. Name and describe air mass #2.
3. What are two other types of air mass that affect the United States weather?
4. A front is ___________________________________________________
5. Define cold front and warm fronts and tell the weather and temperature changes that are associated
with each.
6. Draw the symbol for each front.
Cold Front
Warm Front
7. What is a cyclone? What direction do winds flow in cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere? In the
Southern Hemisphere?
8. Differences of temperature of air masses cause differences in pressure. A difference in pressure
across distances causes wind. Name each of the types of global winds that occur on the surface of
the Earth. Describe the direction of the winds and where they occur.
9. What is the coriolis effect and how does it affect global winds?
10. Use the diagram below to answer the questions that follow:
a. What type of air circulation is shown in the diagram?
b. How does this circulation occur? Use the terms radiation, conduction, and convection in
your response.
Structure of the Atmosphere.
1. What are the 3 most plentiful gases in the atmosphere?
2. List the layers of the atmosphere and how temperature changes with altitude in each layer.
3. Which layer is most important to weather?
4. The stratosphere contains the ________________ layer. Why is this critical for life on our planet?
5. Describe what humans did that affected the layer in question #3 and what was the result?
Radiation from the Sun
1. What greenhouse gas is most associated with global warming in the news? List three ways that
this gas is released into the atmosphere. What are 2 ways this gas absorbed from the atmosphere?
2.
Define conduction, convection and radiation and describe how energy is transferred from the sun,
within and from the Earth using these terms.
3. Describe the interactions between visible light rays, infrared rays, and a greenhouse.
4. Use the diagram below to complete the following paragraph.
The way the Earth interacts with the sun's energy can be
displayed in a diagram called the ______________. It
displays the sun's energy that reaches us and how much
of that energy is ____________ and ____________ by
the earth and its atmosphere. The energy that is reflected
is called the __________. Solar energy reaches earth as
_____________________. Some of the energy makes it
to the earth's surface, and is absorbed by land and oceans.
The amount of energy absorbed affects
_______________. The energy that is not absorbed by
the earth or its atmosphere is ________________ back
out to space in the same wavelengths in which it came to
earth. Of all of the sun's energy that heats the Earth, about ______ is absorbed by the land, ocean,
atmosphere and ___________ and about 30% is reflected back into space.
Use the following diagram to answer question 4 through 6.
In this diagram, you can see the Earth’s axis and the equator.
5. What season is it in the Northern Hemisphere?
6. What season is it in the Southern Hemisphere?
7. What does this diagram tell you about how sunlight reaches the surface of the Earth?
8. Define Albedo. Give two examples of a surfaces with high albedo and surfaces with low albedo.
Moisture in the Atmosphere
1. Describe the latent heat as water changes form
a. From vapor to liquid
b. From vapor to solid
c. From liquid to vapor
d. From solid to liquid
2. Which can hold more moisture: warm air or cold air?
3. What happens to the relative humidity when the air temperature decreases?
4. How are relative humidity and dew point related?
5. What factors affect relative humidity?
6. Which of the following is the correct order of steps for dew formation?
a. air cools at night  water vapor condenses to liquid  liquid collects on the ground
b. air cools at night  cloud sinks  cloud droplets land on ground
c. air warms at night  water vapor condenses to liquid  liquid collects on the ground
d. air warms at night  water on the ground evaporates  water falls back to the ground
7. How is a cloud formed? Describe the 4 ways clouds form.
8. Draw a diagram of the water cycle. Label where evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and
groundwater/run-off occur.
9. How does acid rain form? Does this affect the water cycle?
10. What is climate?
11. List the factors that most affect climate. Include how these factors affect temperature and
precipitation.
12. What does this diagram show?
13. In what hemisphere is this location? How do you know?
14. Use the weather map to answer the question that follows:
Describe the current weather in South Carolina. How will this weather change over the next few days?