GEOG 3A REVIEW SHEET FOR MIDTERM 2
A few studying tips:
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Come to the Wednesday night (Nov. 15) review session (1920 Buchanan Hall – 7:009:00 pm). You can bombard the TA’s with all the questions you want.
Go over the lecture PDF files and animations on the class website.
Go to http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_christopherson_geosystems_6 and do some of the
practice tests. Once you are on this page, scroll down and click on the chapter of your
interest. After you get to the chapter page, try some of the different types of exercises
and self-tests that are listed on the left hand side of the page.
Visit your TA’s and professor during their office hours.
Focus on concepts and processes and not just terminology.
Remember to review the oceanic circulation material that is not in Chapter 6 of your
textbook (such as the Ekman spiral); also review the lecture material on local
temperatures not covered in the text.
Chapter 5 – Global and Local Temperature Patterns
Terms
Temperature, heat, altitude, continentality, land-water heating differences, marine effects,
continent effects, Gulf Stream, specific heat
Key concepts
What are the four key factors in global temperature distribution? Which is the most important?
What is the difference between temperature and heat?
Why do tropical temperatures remain fairly constant throughout a year?
Why does temperature significantly vary over the course of a year at higher latitudes?
What effect does altitude have on temperature difference between day and night or light and
shade? Why?
Why does the peak daily air temperature lag the peak in solar insolation?
Why does the seasonal air temperature peak lag the peak in seasonal radiation at mid-latitudes?
How do clouds affect incoming shortwave and outgoing long wave radiation? How does this
affect surface temperature?
What happens to a soil temperature profile over the course of a day?
Why does water heat up at different rates than soil?
How does temperature in a region in the middle of a continent differ from temperature near a
large body of water? How does this affect temperature differences in winter and summer?
Why is annual temperature fluctuation so extreme over Siberia?
Important Figures
5.1, 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, 5.8, 5.10, 5.11, 5.12-5.16, 5.17
Chapter 6 – Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulations
KEY TERMS:
Air pressure
Low vs. high pressure
Barometer
Pressure gradient force
Coriolis force
Isobar
Anticyclone vs. cyclone,
Friction force
Inter-Tropical
Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
Trade winds
Westerlies
Geostrophic wind
Hadley cell circulation
Subtropical high pressure
Equatorial low pressure
Monsoon (summer v.s.
winter)
Gyres
Ekman spiral
Westward intensification
Gulf Stream
Upwelling
Oceanic conveyor belt
Thermohaline circulation
North Atlantic deep water
KEY QUESTIONS AND CONCEPTS:
Air movement basics:
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What happens to the density of air as you warm it up or cool it down?
What happens to the density of air as you add water vapor to it?
Which direction will air move if it decreases in density?
What happens to the temperature of air as it increases or decreases in pressure?
If air is rapidly rising from a certain area of the Earth’s surface, why doesn’t that area
eventually run out of air?
Global Atmospheric Circulation:
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Why do clouds generally cover the ITCZ?
How does the location of the ITCZ change throughout a year? How does this affect
seasonal rainfall patterns in the tropics?
Why is the ITCZ not a perfectly straight line circling the earth?
Why is the equator rotating faster than any other parallel on Earth?
In which direction are moving fluids and objects deflected in the northern hemisphere?
And in the southern hemisphere? Why?
If wind at the Earth’s surface tends to travel across isobars at about a 45 degree angle,
why do geostrophic winds travel parallel to isobars?
Does the Coriolis force act stronger on faster or slower moving objects and fluids?
If a wind is called “westerly,” in which direction is it traveling? Is this different from the
way we describe the direction of ocean currents?
What are the four forces that determine wind direction and speed?
How does the proximity of isobars to one another relate to wind speed?
Is air flowing around a low-pressure center described as “cyclonic” or “anti-cyclonic?”
How about around a high-pressure center?
Regional and Local Winds:
- Explain why there are monsoonal winds in India during the Northern Hemisphere
summer?
- Why have many wildfires occurred when “Santa Ana” winds have been present in
California? Where does the air originate from?
- Describe how land-sea breezes work.
Oceanic Circulation:
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For what reasons doesn’t the ocean’s surface generally travel in the same direction as the
wind above it?
If the ocean’s surface generally travels at about a 45 degree angle to the wind above it,
why is the net direction of the ocean in the top 100m generally about 90 degrees to the
direction of the wind?
What effect does westward intensification have on the elevation of the sea surface on
western boundaries of ocean basins in the tropics?
Why is upwelling most common along west coasts of continents?
In which direction do mid-ocean gyres circulate in each hemisphere? Why?
What is the path of the Gulf Stream? What climatic effects does that have in Europe?
Why does water sink in the north Atlantic? What is the name of the global oceanic
circulation that this sinking triggers?
Especially important figures: 6.2, 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 6.13, 6.18, 6.19, 6.21, 6.22, 6.23