Rockhurst Wilcox Earth Science 2nd Semester Final Review

59. Why does land heat and cool more than water?

land absorbs much more solar radiation

76. Where does a sea breeze usually originate?

starts on the ocean, flows inward toward land

39. What causes the red emission of nebula?

the abundance of hydrogen

62. Why are raindrops larger than 5mm rare?

the frictional drag from falling is greater than the surface tension that holds the drops together

36. What part of the sun is visible during a solar eclipse?

the suns corona

58. Why are isotherms used?

used on maps by meteorologists to give a large scale view of temperatures across the US

31. How is electromagnetic energy gathered by radio telescopes?

uses antennas to collect the incoming radio waves. the antenna reflects the radio waves to a receiver

27. How is the color of light from a distant object related to its wavelength?

visible light is defined as the wavelengths that are visible to most human eyes

95. How much have global temperatures increased in the last 100 years?

1.4˚ F (.8C)

70. Calculate the air temperature at 2000 m with a lapse rate of 5C/1000m and adiabatic rate of 10C?

10C

83. What is standard pressure at sea level in inches?

29.92 inches of mercury

49. What is the difference between weather and climate?

weather is conditions of the atmosphere over a short period of time. Climate is how the atmosphere behaves over a long time

55. How much can the angle of the noonday sun vary by each year?

40 degrees

93. How much as the sevel level risen since 1870?

8 inches (20cm)

87. What type of front is represented by semicircles?

A warm front

57. How is the mean day temperature determined?

Add daily max and in then divide by two

71. What type of fog is caused by cooling of surface air to below its dew point?

Advection fog

67. What happens to the temperature change in unsaturated air that rises when it reaches saturation?

Always cools when it becomes less dense

91. What can the wind speed of a C 5 hurricane be compared to?

An F3 Tornado

42. What is a main sequence star?

Any star that is fusing hydrogen in its core.

81. Where is the Coriolis effect the greatest?

At the poles and zero at the equator

97. What are the parts of the climate system?

Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Cyrosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere

40. What color are stars with the brightest surface temperature?

Blue

41. Compare a blue star to our Sun in terms of temperature and size.

Blue stars can put out 10,000 times as much energy as our sun. The sun can put out 6,000 helium. Blue star is at least 3 times the mass of the sun.

64. How does snow vary with the temperature?

Cold snow is powdery and light. Warm is moist

85. What types of fronts cause several days of consistent weather?

Cold, Warm, Stationary, Occluded

94. How will sea ice melting affect the climate?

Disrupting circulation leads to warmer climates

61. What radar measure give the intensity of the precipitation?

Doppler

74. Where was El Nino first described?

Eastern Pacific Ocean

84. Who invented the barometer?

Evangelista Torricelli

1. How many heavenly bodies were "wanderers" according to the Greeks?

Every planet other than the Earth

3. Describe the Ptolemaic model of the universe.

Explained and predicted the motions of the planets with deferents and epicycles

38. What does the variety of brightness in Cepheid Variables allow us to determine about the star?

It determined that the brighter the cepheid, the longer its period.

88. Where is precipitation typically found in relation to the warm from it is part of?

It is on top

12. What is the right ascension of the sun at the vernal equinox?

It is the Celestial Sphere

51. Why is the ozone concentrated in particular levels of the atmosphere?

It requires a catalyst, an isolated oxygen atom, and an oxygen molecule, all of which occur in sufficient quantities at that range of levels

46. What is Hubble's Law?

It states that the milky way is expanding, the universe is expanding, and the red shift of distant galaxies are proportions to their distances from us.

75. Describe the phenomenon that can cause a 15C drop based on winds down Valley in AK.

Katabatic Winds

69. What is indicative of unstable atmospheric conditions?

Lowest layers of airmass are warmer or more humid than its environment

86. What is an air mass from the Gulf of Mexico?

Maritime Tropical Airmass

7. Why does Mars retrograde?

Mars is twice as slow as Earth and Earth overtakes/laps mars

16. What produced most of the moon's craters?

Meteors

14. What observation supports the theory that the planets formed from nebula?

Nebular Theory

22. Which planet has the highest recorded winds?

Neptune

8.-10. Describe the contributions of: Newton, Copernicus, Brahe, Galileo, and Kepler.

Newton- Laws of Gravity Copernicus- On the revolution of the celestial spheres Brahe- sun orbits earth Galileo- all planets revolve around the sun Kepler- 3 laws of planetary motion,

33. What is the source of the sun's energy?

Nuclear fusion converts hydrogen atoms into helium

56. What is the mechanism for heat transfer in a vacuum?

Radiation

89. "Widely scattered storms" are usually associated with what type of weather event?

Rain Storms

26. What color has the longest wavelength?

Red

98. Which part of the earth's system would be significantly impacted by climate change?

Regional weather patterns

52. Why is ozone important?

Shields us from the suns harmful ultra violet rays

92. Where will be magnitude of temperature increase due to greenhouse warming will be?

Smallest in the tropics

63. What do we call wintertime ice precipitation?

Snow

100. What is the boundary between air masses having different densities?

Stationary- No movement Warm- warm air replaces cold Cold- Cold air replaces warm

72. What types of fog are evaporation fogs?

Steam Fog

96. When do polar climates get most of their precipitation?

Summer months

13. What theory explains how our solar system probably formed from clouds of gases?

The Big Bang Theory

45. The expansion of the universe led to what theory?

The Big Bang Theory

78. What climate phenomenon are many deserts associated with?

The Hadley Cell

77. What is another name for equatorial low pressure?

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)

19. Why is it hard to examine Venus?

The atmosphere is so thick

82. What do Isobars represent?

The atmosphere pressure in millibars

17. Why do scientists think the surface of the moon was once magma?

The lunar highlands contain large amounts of anorthosite.

6. Which way do planets appear to move at night?

The planets seem to move relative to the stars

54. Why can gas molecules have a temperature of 1000C in the outermost level of the atmosphere?

There is no filter to keep the sun from heating the outer atmosphere

79. Which way do low pressure winds blow in the S hemisphere?

They blow to the left

2. Why were planets called "wanderers?"

They moved relative to the stars

32. How do astronomers improve resolution of radio telescopes?

They use multiple radio telescopes at the same time

66. Look at a table and answer some questions.

This one is just dumb and makes 0 sense

68. What is orographic lifting associated with?

Thunderstorms

21. What moon is "most Earth like?" meaning it has liquids on the surface?

Titan

5. Why did the Chinese, Egyptians, and Babylonians make astronomical records?

To determine when to plant crops or hunt animals based on seasonal changes

53. What level of the atmosphere has most weather phenomenon?

Troposphere

90. What are hurricanes known as in the western Pacific?

Typhoons

18. What planet has only been radar mapped?

Venus

99. What are the equinoxes?

Vernal- March 20 Autumnal- September 23

60. Why are isotherms deflected toward the poles over the sea?

Warm currents

15. How do scientists characterize the impacts of Earth by looking at impacts in outer space?

We can look at the age of other planets

50. What influences weather?

Weather is caused by movement or transfer of heat energy, which influences temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloud cover, wind speed, and wind direction.

80. What type of air pressure indicates "fair" weather is approaching?

When air pressure rises and increases rapidly

44. When do main sequence stars reach "balance?"

When gravity pulls the star to earth and when gravity pulls you towards the earth and when gravity pulls you to the center of the space equal

11. What is the belt of constellations through known as?

Zodiac

65. Contrast a gas and a liquid

atoms are more spread out in a gas

35. What causes irregularities in the brightness of the sun's photosphere?

because of bubbling grenules of plasma and sunspots

73. What type of weather pattern will relieve drought in SW USA?

cold rain

34. What are the most conspicuous features on the sun?

dark areas called sun spots

48. What is the evidence for dark matter?

galaxy clusters, galactic rotation curves, cosmic microwave backgrounds, bullet cluster, large scale structure formation

43. What is the dominant factor in the life of a star?

gravity