Chapter 1.
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The earths atmosphere is a mixture of many gases #1 Nitrogen 78% and oxygen 21%
Water vapor and carbon dioxide are important green house gasses
Ozone- in the stratosphere protects life from harmful radiation
Water on Earth is believed to have come from the hot interior through out gassing.
Pressure= Force/Area
Density= Mass/Volume
Weight=MassxGravity
Atomic pressure is the total mass of the air above that level.
Atomic pressure declines with increasing height.
Atmosphere is divided based on temp, gaseous components or electrical properties.
Chapter 2
1. Temperature is measures by the average speed of its atoms and molecules
2. Evaporation is liquid into vapor is a cooling process that can cool the air
3. Condensation is vapor into liquid is a warming process that can warm the air.
4. Heat is energy in the process of being transferred from one object to another because there
different temperatures.
5. Conduction is the transfer of heat by molecule to molecule contact. Heat always goes from
warm to cold.
6. Air is a poor conductor
7. Convection represents the movement of warmer air upward and cooler air downward.
8. All objects with a temp above absolute zero emit radiation
9. The higher the temp of an object the greater amount of radiation emitted per unit surface area
and the shorter the wave length of maximum emissions.
10. The earth absorbs solar radiation during the day and emits inferred radiation continually 24
hours.
11. The earths surface acts as a black body, making it much better absorber and emitter of radiation
than the atmosphere.
12. Water vapor and carbon dioxide are important green house gases that selectively absorb and
emit inferred radiation. This keeps the earths temp higher then it would be.
13. Cloudy calm nights are often warmer than clear cal nights because clouds strongly emit inferred
radiation back into the earths surface.
Chapter 3
1. The seasons are caused by the earth being tilted on its axis and its revolution around the sun.
2. The coldest nights occur when the air is calm and dry and cloud free.
3. Radiation inversion is when the air below is cooler then the air above
Chapter 4
1. Relative humidity tells us how close the air is to being saturated
2. Relative humidity can change when the airs water vapor content changes or the air temp
changes.
3. With a constant amount of water vapor cooling the air raise s the relative humidity and warming
the air lowers it
4. The dew point is a good indicator of the airs water vapor content; low dew points low water
vapor content; high dew points high vapor content
5. When the dew point temp is low the air is considered dry but if the air temperature is close to
dew point then the relative humidity is high.
Chapter 5
1. Dew, Frost and frozen dew generally form on clear nights when the temp of objects on the
surface cool below the dew point temp
2. Visible white fog forms in saturated air when the air temp Is at or below freezing. when this
happens water vapor can change directly into ice, this is called deposition
3. Condensation nuclei act as surfaces on which water vapor condenses. Nuclei that have an
affinity for water vapor are called hygroscopic.
4. Fog is a cloud resting on the ground. It can be composed of water droplets or ice crystals or
both.
5. Fog forms as air cools
6. Radiation fog- the cooling for radiation fog is cooling at the earths surface .
7. Advection fog- the cooling comes from when warmer air is moving over a colder surface.
8. Upslope fog- the cooling comes as moist air gradually rises and expands along sloping terrain.
9. Evaporation (mixing) fog- forms as water evaporates and mixes with drier air.
CLOUDS
Chapter 6
1. The air temp in a rising parcel of unsaturated air decreases the dry adiabatic rate, whereas the
air temp of a saturated air decreases at the moist adiabatic rate.
2. The dry adiabatic rate and moist adiabatic rate of cooling are different due to the fact that latent
heat is released in a rising parcel of saturated air.
3. In a stable atmosphere a lifted parcel of air will be colder (heavier) then the air surrounding it.
Because of this the lifted parcel will tend to sink back to its original position
4. In an unstable atmosphere a lifted parcel of air will be warmer (lighter) then the air surrounding
it so it will continue to rise away from its original position.
5. The atmosphere becomes more stable as the surface air cools, the air aloft warms, or a layer of
air sinks (subsides) over a vast area
6. The Atmosphere becomes more unstable as the surface air warms, the air aloft cools or a layer
of air is mixed or lifted.
7. Layered clouds form in a stable atmosphere whereas cumuliform clouds form in a conditionally
unstable atmosphere.
Chapter 7
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Cloud droplets are very small, much to small to fall as rain.
The smaller the cloud droplet, the greater its curvature and the more likely it will evaporate.
Cloud droplets form on the cloud condensation nuclei.
Cloud droplets in above-freezing air can grow larger as faster-falling, bigger droplets collide and
coalesce with smaller droplets in their path.
5. Most of the rain that falls over the middle latitudes results from melted snow that formed from
the ice-crystal process.
Chapter 8
1. The pressure gradient force is always directed from higher pressure toward lower pressure and
it’s the pressure gradient force that causes the air to move.
2. Steep pressure gradients ( tight packed isobars) indicate strong pressure gradient forces and
high winds. Gentle pressure gradients (widely spaced isobars) indicate weak pressure gradient
forces and light winds
3. One the wind starts to blow the coriolis force causes it to bend to the right of its intended path
in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.
Chapter 9
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Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed or direction (or both )
Onshore winds blow from water to land and offshore winds blow from land to water.
The prevailing winds is the wind direction most frequently observed during a given time
The wind rose gives the percent of time the wind blows from a different direction
Wind speed and direction above the earths surface can be obtained with pilot balloons,
radiosondes, rockets, satellites and Doppler radar
Chapter 10
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