PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
STUDY GUIDE – EXAM 2
Be prepared to identify, define, describe, compare, contrast, and give an example of the following:
Atmospheric Pressure
Pressure Charts: isobars - millibars
Global Circulation and Pressure Systems:
Thermal and Dynamic Highs/Lows (Developmental differences)
Anticyclonic flow
Cyclonic Flow
Location Global Winds: Northeast /Southeast Trades
Westerlies
Polar Easterlies
How developed? Location of belts of Low Pressure? High pressure around the globe?
Forces affecting Wind movement: Pressure Gradient Force - Coriolis Force - Friction
Semi-permanent Highs and Lows in Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean? Location and types
El Nino-Southern Oscillation: Upwelling - Interrelationships – development – conditions – consequences – research
One-cell Circulation Model (Hadley) - Three-cell Circulation Model (Ferrel)
Pacific Ocean Currents: name the currents, direction of flow, warm/cold
Atlantic Ocean Currents: name the currents, direction of flow, warm/cold
Jet Stream: What is this? Effect on developing surface Highs and Lows? Formation? Locations?
Local winds: Sea Breeze/Land breeze
Monsoons
Santa Ana Winds
What is the hydrologic cycle?
Absolute Humidity
Specific Humidity
Relative Humidity
Dew Point Temperature
What is vapor pressure? Actual vapor pressure (AVP)? Saturated vapor Pressure (SVP)?
Mixing Ratio – Actual Mixing Ratio? Saturated Mixing Ratio?
Lapse Rates - Normal - Inverse –
Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate
Wet Adiabatic Lapse Rate
Environmental Lapse Rate
Stability:
Stable Air
Unstable Air
Conditionally Unstable Air
Convective Instability
Give examples - (Diagrams of stability) Relationship between stability and DALR, WALR and ELR?
Fog: Formation – Types – locations – seasonality Cloud development:
Four Mechanisms for uplift Condensation nuclei – Types and locations
Cloud droplet to Rain droplet...mechanisms
involved: collision/coalescence, cloud thickness, electrical charge, liquid water content, uplift/updrafts
Four major classes of clouds: Types of clouds within each class (characteristics)
Relationship between cloud development and stability
Precipitation: Freezing Rain vs Sleet?
Air Masses
Source Regions
Characteristics of source regions
Types of Air Masses: Names (identify with source region) Define Characteristics of humidity and temperature
Fronts
Define
Identify – Cold, Warm, Stationary, Occluded
Polar Front Theory for development of Mid-Latitude cyclones
Thunderstorms
Stages – Cumulus, Mature, Dissipating
Characteristics of each stage: ppt, winds, etc.
Wind Shear – Vertical and Directional
Weather conditions to create
Energy sources
Types: Air mass – Severe: Characteristics: Gust Front Microburst Doppler Radar
Electrical polarity and temperature/humidity polarity within cloud
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Supercells
Squall line Collision Zone for air masses in central USA Updrafts & Downdrafts
Cumulonimbus clouds
Hail
Tornadoes
Weather conditions to form
Features of tornado-forming storms: Mammatus clouds, Mesocyclone, Funnel cloud, Path on ground
Rotation speed Translational (ground) speed
Where form? Why form? Most common occurrence: Season and time of day
Location Fujita Scale
Hurricanes
Where formed
Conditions necessary for formation Energy Source
Rotational speed
Translational speed Eye Eye Wall Clouds Storm Surge
Dissipation process?
Stages: Tropical disturbance – Tropical depression – Tropical storm – Hurricane: How distinguish each stage?
Typical movement pattern and location
Saffir-Simpson Scale
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------TEST QUIZ FOR EXAM 2
1.
Short duration, high intensity rainfall is associated most often with
a. A warm front
b. A cold front
c. A stationary front
d. None of these
2.
On a weather map, this front, drawn in blue, represents a region where colder air is replacing warmer air.
a. Warm front
b. Cold front
c. Cold-type occluded front
d. Warm-type occluded front
3.
During the winter as you travel toward a warm front, the most likely sequence of weather you would experience is:
a. Snow, freezing rain, hail, sleet
b. Rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain
c. Freezing rain, snow, sleet, rain
d. Snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain
4.
In a severe thunderstorm, hail may
a. Fall from the base of the anvil
b. Fall from the bottom of the cloud
c. Be tossed out the side of the cloud
d. All of the above
5. Which of the following would you not expect to observe during the passage of a gust front?
a. Gusty winds
b. Rising surface pressure
c. Increases in temperature
d. Wind shifts
6.
Lightning may occur:
a. Within a cloud
b. From a cloud to the ground
c. From one cloud to another cloud
d. All of the above
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7.
Which below is the best indication that a severe thunderstorm is about to produce a tornado?
a. A wall cloud
b. A roll cloud
c. A mammatus cloud
d. A gust front
8.
The strongest winds in a hurricane are found:
a. at the center of the storm
b. in the eye wall
c. in the rain bands
d. at the upper levels, above the center of the storm
9.
Cool ocean currents
a. May tend to intensify local aridity
b. Are found on the east sides of continents at low latitudes
c. Tend to be relatively barren of marine life
d. Flow generally poleward
10. The greatest contrast in both temperature and moisture will occur along the boundary separating which air masses?
a. cP and cT
b. mP and mT
c. mP and cT
d. mT and cP
ANSWERS: 1. b
2. b
3. d
4. d
5. c
6. d
7. a
8. b
9. a
10. d
TEST QUIZ FOR EXAM 2
1. On a cold, calm autumn morning, the formation of fog above a relatively warm lake would most like be:
a. Radiation fog
b. Evaporation fog
c. Frontal Fog
d. Upslope Fog
2.
Lines connecting points of equal barometric pressure are called:
a. Millibars
b. Isobars
c. Isotherms
d. Pressure lines
3.
If an air parcel is given a small push upward, and it eventually returns to its original position, the air is said to be:
a. dynamic
b. stable
c. unstable
d. warm
4.
Relative humidity changes with:
a. addition of water vapor to the air
b. decreases in temperature
c. increases in temperature
d. all of the above
5.
Which cloud type would most likely form in absolutely stable air?
a. cumulus congestus
b. cumulonimbus
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c. stratus
d. altocumulus
6. If the environmental lapse rate is less than the wet adiabatic lapse rate, the atmosphere is:
a. Conditionally unstable
b. Absolutely stable
c. Absolutely unstable
d. Convectively unstable
7.
The contour lines drawn on a 500 mb chart are lines of constant:
a. Pressure
b. Altitude
c. Density
d. Wind direction
8.
The _______________ is an apparent force created by the Earth’s rotation
a. Pressure gradient force
b. Friction
c. Coriolis Force
d. Gravitational Force
9.
Which of the following produces the strongest Coriolis Force?
a. Fast winds, low latitude
b. Fast winds, high latitude
c. Slow winds, low latitude
d. Slow winds, high latitude
10. Which below would not be considered an onshore wind?
a. Santa Ana wind
b. Lake breeze
c. Sea Breeze
d. None of the above
11. A sea or land breeze is caused by
a. Differences in humidity
b. Differences in elevation
c. Differences in temperature
d. All of the above
Answers: (1) b (2) b (3) b (4) d (5) c (6) b (7) a (8) c (9) b (10) a (11) c
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
POSSIBLE ESSAY QUESTIONS FOR EXAM 2
1.
Describe El Niño-Southern Oscillation Events (ENSO). Include in your discussion, changes in local
weather patterns, including rain/drought patterns, changes in air pressure systems, changes in local,
regional and global wind patterns, changes in ocean currents, upwelling, and other possible occurrences
during a major ENSO event.
2. Describe the development of Santa Ana Winds in southern California. Include in your discussion:
pressure systems, wind directions, obstacles, heating and desiccating sources, and all climatic and
topographic factors affecting the development of these winds.
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3. Describe completely the Monsoon circulation pattern in South Asia for both Winter and Summer.
Include in your discussion: a diagram (optional), changing temperature and pressure systems on both the
landmass and the surrounding oceans, changing wind direction, air temperature, precipitation patterns
and totals and typical weather conditions for both monsoons.
4. Describe the atmospheric conditions that are favorable for the development of a hurricane. Include in
your discussion the source of energy for hurricanes, factors that tend to weaken hurricanes, and typical
values for the following hurricane characteristics: diameter, location and size of the eye, direction of
rotation and speed of winds, central pressure, direction and speed of movement and duration.
5.
Describe the development of a severe thunderstorm (indicate updrafts, downdrafts, possible
tornadoes, temperature and wind shear areas within the storm, hail, precipitation areas, gust fronts,
etc.). Include in your discussion the lifecycle stages of the storm, including the lifecycle stages of the
tornado it may create.
6. Describe Sea Breeze and Land Breeze circulation. Include in your discussion the differential heating
and cooling of land and water, as well as the thermal air pressure systems that develop and set these
breezes in motion.
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