GES Final Exam
What is consistent with the definition of "equilibrium"? (Choose all answers that you think are correct.
Correct a state of balance between opposing forces that keeps the system in a steady-state condition a tendency of a system to vary around a stable average condition even if it fluctuates up and down a bit over time
N 2 makes up almost 80% of our atmosphere by weight. Nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient.
N2 is a form of nitrogen that cannot be assimilated by most plants; only a few types of organisms can "fix" nitrogen chemically in a form that is available for uptake as a nutrient
December 22 is
None of these: the longest day of the year (i.e. longest period of daylight) on the Arctic Circle the shortest day of the year south of the equator shorter than every other day of the year at the equator
Which of the following pictures best represents the trend of atmospheric temperature (horizontal axis) with increasing altitude (vertical axis) from the surface to an altitude of about 120 km?
The most wavy graph
How high is the sun in the sky on June 21 at latitude 75 degrees South?
The sun is not above the horizon
Which of the following is an accurate projection with respect to shape, size and direction?
There is no such thing as a flat map projection that is accurate in all of these respects
Why are some of the world's great deserts located in the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn?
They are associated with subsiding air in the subtropical high-pressure belts.
How do soil profiles form?
They develop over time, beginning at the surface and growing downward into the unweathered material at the earth's surface
The surface winds that blow toward the ITCZ are called
Trade winds
Which of the following is not a great circle or part of a great circle?
Tropic of Cancer
Where would you find the greatest seasonal variation in monthly precipitation?
Tropical monsoon climate
Isotherms over land bend toward the equator in winter and toward the poles in summer.
True
One degree of latitude (measured along a meridian) represents pretty much the same distance anywhere on the earth's surface, but one degree of longitude (measured along a parallel) represents different distances on the surface depending on the latitude where the measurement is made. True or false?
True
The earth is generally considered an open system with respect to energy and a closed system with respect to matter
True
Unusually cold temperatures and unseasonably warm temperatures in the midlatitudes in winter are actually both caused by the same large-scale circulation pattern in the atmosphere.
True
Which of the figures below most accurately represents the average global pattern of winds associated with the general circulation of the atmosphere?
Very top and very bottom arrows go towards the middle and to the left
The maximum intensity of solar radiation occurs in what part of the electromagnetic spectrum?
Visible
Which answer best describes climatic conditions in Florida?
Wet throughout the year - maritime tropical air is pumped onshore by clockwise circulation around the subtropical high in summer and heating over land causes frequent convective precipitation; frontal precipitation is common in winter
Which of the following statements is true?
Where there is a rainshadow, temperatures at the surface are generally warmer on the rainshadow side than on the windward side of a mountain range
Which of the conditions in the previous question is the most likely description of what happens along the coast of Florida on a summer afternoon?
a
Which of the following statements is true?
a great circle has a circumference equal to the circumference of the earth
If the ice-albedo feedback loop described in the textbook is a correct description of nature, what should happen with the disappearance of Arctic sea ice?
a positive feedback effect that accelerates the rate of warming
Under what conditions do we see formation of the type of front illustrated in the previous question?
a rapidly moving cold front overtakes a warm front and forces the warm air entirely away from the surface
In thinking about map scales, which of the following statements is true?
a ratio scale of 1:24,000 tells you that one unit on the map is equal to 24,000 of the same unit on the earth's surface a map of scale 1:10,000 is considered to be large scale by comparison to a map with scale 1:1,000,000 which depicts a much larger geographic area but has a smaller scale (i.e. smaller ratio) on a map with a Mercator projection, map scale is not constant but varies dramatically between low and high latitudes
What distinguishes a scientific concept from one that cannot be characterized as scientific?
a scientific concept is one for which we can identify a test capable of proving it wrong
What is a monsoon?
a seasonal reversal of dominant winds, bringing tropical moist air over the land in one season and dry continental air from the land to the ocean in the other, associated with migration of the ITCZ
When isotherms are closer together on a map there is
a steeper temperature gradient
Cooling of the land surface on a clear night may cause _____ by just before dawn.
a temperature inversion
Major ocean currents in the North Atlantic include
a warm-water current moving north along the east coast of North America and a cool-water current moving south along the coasts of Spain and North Africa
Average global sea level 19-20,000 years ago was
about 120 m lower than it is today
In class we calculated the amount of energy needed to (1) melt a gram of ice at 0 degrees C; (2) raise the temperature of the water to 100 degrees C; and (3) convert that gram of liquid water into water vapor. What percent of the total energy involved in these three processes goes into latent heat rather than sensible heat?
about 85%
The storm track for a tropical cyclone
almost always involves westward drift in the trade-wind belt may include a turn to higher latitudes and steering by the westerlies is highly variable from one tropical cyclone to the next
The types of cyclones that are most common in the midlatitudes typically develop
along a section of the polar front
What is regolith?
any layer of loose, unconsolidated material at the earth's surface
Where would you expect to find the lowest biodiversity?
arctic tundra
highland climates
are characterized by vertical zonation that in some cases can encompass the range between tropical rainforest and tundra conditions, with lower temperatures and (sometimes) wetter conditions at higher altitudes
Temperature differences between equatorial and polar latitudes
are greatest in winter
Atmospheric pressure patterns in the northern hemisphere
are more variable in the higher latitudes compared with the southern hemisphere, because of the configuration of alternating continents and oceans surrounding the pole in the northern hemisphere
What evidence do we have for long-term variations in global climate?
as glaciers move over the landscape they leave both erosional and depositional evidence of their presence in places where we do not find them today fluctuations in the ratio of oxygen isotopes 18 and 16 that are preserved in marine microfossils buried in sediment layers on the ocean floor can be used to reconstruct variations in global ice volume and global temperature changes in the relative abundance of different kinds of pollen in lake sediments can be used to draw conclusions about changes in climate that controlled patterns of terrestrial vegetation
Air rises spontaneously
as long as its temperature is higher than that of the surrounding air
Which of the following statements about trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide is not true?
at the current rate of change, carbon dioxide will become the second most abundant gas in the atmosphere by the year 2150
All but which of the following are among the major sources of phosphorus to natural waters?
atmospheric deposition of byproducts from fossil fuel combustion
Why is water considered such an important part of the earth system?
because 71% of the surface is covered by water because water is essential to most biological processes because water can store enormous amounts of heat energy, carry energy from one latitude to another, and release that energy back to the atmosphere
Tropical air masses
can influence on weather at higher latitudes both through incursion of tropical air masses and through the influence of warm ocean currents
An increase in the amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in the ocean
changes the pH of the ocean and threatens coral reef habitat as well as the ability of shellfish to build their shells
Which location is most likely to have a humid continental hot-summer climate?
chicago
Why does the Antarctic ozone hole typically develop and reach its maximum extent from September into early October?
chlorine ions derived from CFC emissions are trapped by ice crystals in polar stratospheric clouds through the winter; the ice crystals then melt in the Antarctic spring, releasing Cl ions to react with ozone molecules
Where you see this kind of feature in a radar image, what kind of front is responsible?
cold front
Which of the following conditions generally has to occur first before condensation can occur?
cooling of a moist air mass
Which of the following cloud types is most likely to form as a result of convection?
cumulus
What is the process that converts nitrate into nitrogen gas?
denitrification
What drives the thermohaline circulation?
density differences controlled by differences in temperature and salinity
Which of these is NOT typically considered a step in the scientific method?
drawing a conclusion that an idea has proven true once and for all
Which statement is correct?
during the last 800,000 years the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere never rose above 300 parts per million until after the Industrial Revolution
Which of the following typically is associated with the layer immediately below the A horizon in a soil?
eluviation
What factor is MOST responsible for the "dead zone" that develops in the Gulf of Mexico every year? (Note: Chesapeake Bay suffers from the same problem.)
excessive discharge of nutrients (especially nitrates) in runoff from agricultural land in the Mississippi River basin
Temperature more than about 80 cm below the ground surface
experiences almost no temperature change during a typical daily cycle of heating and cooling at the surface.
Which of the following statements is true?
extratropical cyclones are less common at our latitude in summer than in winter and spring, because the polar front is located further north in summer
Cation exchange capacity is most often associated with what characteristic of the soil?
fertiity and nutrient availability
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
formation of cloud droplets in a rising air mass is the last step required before precipitation begins
Which of the following circulation patterns is associated with a cyclone in the northern hemisphere?
general counterclockwise flow around a center of low pressure, spiraling in at the surface and rising at the center
A system of parallels and meridians superimposed on the earth's surface on a globe or map is called:
geographic grid
What do we call the circulation of air parallel to the isobars around a low or a high in the upper troposphere?
geostrophic wind
On a transect across the upper midwestern U.S. we see a gradual gradation of soil types. Which of the following does NOT describe the sequence you see as you travel from east to west?
gradually drier conditions as you proceed to the west
The Holocene, the time period including all of recorded human history,
has been an interglacial period following the rapid retreat of continental glaciers from much of the northern hemisphere
Where is chemical weathering most effective?
in tropical wet enviroments
The amount of moisture that air can hold
increases by about a factor of 2 with each 10o C increase in temperature
Which of the following is a component or aspect of all systems?
input and output of energy and/or matter storage internal transformation a boundary
Contour lines on a map representing locations with equal atmospheric pressure are called
isobars
Latitudes closer to the equator than about 40 degrees have a surplus of net radiation when averaged over the year. What happens to that surplus energy?
it drives the circulation of the atmosphere and ocean surface, which carry surplus energy toward higher latitudes in the form of latent and sensible heat
Which one of the following statements about the Coriolis effect is correct?
it is strongest at the poles and decreases in strength approaching the equator
Hadley cells are
large-scale atmospheric convection cells in the tropics, extending between the ITCZ and the tropics of Cancer or Capricorn
Which of the following statements about the global energy balance is correct?
large-scale motions of the atmosphere and oceans are driven by the imbalance between latitudinal regions with energy surpluses and others with energy deficits
What kind of weather pattern is the most important source of moisture throughout most of the year in the climate described in the previous question?
midlatitude cyclones
If the sun were cooler than it is,
more of the sun's incoming radiation would be in the infrared part of the spectrum
Which type of front is associated with the symbol shown below
occluded front
Temperature inversions
occur when sinking air from above warms adiabatically and is warmer than air at the surface occur when upwelling of cold bottom water along the coast leads to temperatures that are always cooler than the air above occurs when a cool air mass moves in from offshore and pushes its way underneath warmer surface air may trap a layer of air at the surface where pollutants can accumulate
Which phenomena are associated with Ekman transport?
ocean surface currents driven by trade winds in the northern hemisphere veer to the right, producing currents that move offshore and are replaced by upwelling of cold bottom water
Where on the globe would you expect to see the largest annual range of temperatures?
over the high-latitude continental interiors
Where are we most likely to see precipitation generated by convergence?
over warm tropical oceans and tropical rainforests
Which of the following is associated with a zone in the upper midlatitudes where warm air from the subtopics is forced upward as it meets cold air from polar regions?
polar front
Organisms that are capable of using CO2 as their sole source of carbon are
primary producers
Which of the following lists bands in the electromagnetic spectrum in order from longer to shorter wavelengths?
radio waves --> microwave --> infrared --> visible light --> ultraviolet --> X-ray --> gamma rays
What controls semiarid and arid climates of the midlatitudes?
rainshadow from mountain ranges or remoteness from sources of moisture at continental interior locations
What process is responsible for the fact that the sky is blue and sunsets are yellow, orange or red?
refraction
Assume that the actual amount of water vapor in the air does not change over a 24-hour period in the summer. How does relative humidity change over this same time period?
relative humidity should rise in the evening, reach a maximum in early morning, and gradually decline to a minimum in mid-to-late afternoon
Which of the following is NOT an example of carbon sequestration?
respiration
Which of the following is NOT an anticipated side effect of global climate change?
rising sea level increased likelihood of extreme weather negative impacts on ecosystems like coral reefs, tundra and forests changes in Arctic albedo
Which of the following is NOT one of the things that happens to shortwave radiation absorbed at the earth's surface?
some is emitted upward by the surface as shortwave radiation
Hazards associated with tropical cyclones include
storm surge and coastal flooding inland flooding from intense rainfall extreme wind velocities that may tear the roofs off houses or flatten buildings
Which of the following is a step that is involved in the development of a tornado?
stronger winds aloft and weaker winds at the surface cause spinning of air along a horizontal axis
Crumb or granular, platy, block, and prismatic or columnar are all adjectives that we use to describe what characteristic property of a soil?
structure of aggregates or "peds"
Which climate type and/or associated vegetation pattern corresponds to number 4 on the map in the previous question?
subtropical desert
Which of the following is likely to have the highest emission of sensible heat on an annual basis?
subtropical deserts (i.e. close to the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn)
Which answer best describes the pattern of winds in the figure below?
surface winds associated with an anticyclone in the northern hemisphere
The major gyres discussed in class are
systems of ocean surface currents driven by the anticyclonic circulation of winds associated with the subtropical high pressure belts
Which of the following is NOT one of the five factors of soil formation?
tectonic activity
Which of the following best explains the timing of daily maximum temperature?
temperature continues to rise as long as net radiation is positive and begins to decline when net radiation becomes negative
Which answer most closely describes annual variations in the general circulation of the atmosphere?
the ITCZ follows the annual migration of the zone of greatest heating, moving further over land than it does over water
With increasing temperature, what happens to the emission of radiant energy?
the amount emitted increases and the wavelength becomes shorter
Which of the following best explains what we know about patterns in earth's climate over the last 2.6 million years?
the cycles of glacial and interglacial periods can be explained as a result of cyclical variations in the shape of earth's orbit and the angle of tilt and "wobble" of the earth's axis
Humus is
the finely divided, dark-colored residue left behind by gradual decay of organic matter in the upper layer of the soil
Which of the following is true?
the first and third answers are correct, the second and fourth answers are not
Which of the following is NOT an accurate description of the nature of air circulation in a tropical cyclone?
the highest wind velocities occur in the center of the eye itself
Which of the following statements about global climate change is NOT true?
the only greenhouse gas affecting atmospheric temperatures is carbon dioxide
Saturation vapor pressure is
the portion of total atmospheric pressure due to the weight of water vapor in the air when relative humidity is 100%
What is the solar constant?
the rate at which solar energy approaching the earth passes through a unit surface area at the top of the earth's atmosphere per unit time
As you fly west from San Francisco to Tokyo, you will cross through multiple time zones and also cross the International Date Line along the way. What happens to the date and the time of day on this trip?
the time gets earlier, but as you cross the International Date Line the calendar date changes to the next day
If we look at a vertical temperature profile of the ocean,
the warmest water is at the surface and most of the water column is only a few degrees above 0 degrees C.
In the mature phase of thunderstorm development,
there often are powerful updrafts and downdrafts in separate parts of the same cloud
What accounts for the thunder that follows lightning?
thunder is the audible expression of a shock wave created by rapid expansion of a narrow channel of superheated air
All but which of the following is supposed to be managed and prevented from entering natural waters draining to Chesapeake Bay under the terms of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL ?
toxic organic chemicals
In what terrestrial environment would you expect to find the highest annual net primary productivity?
tropical rainforest
As base cations are replaced on the surface of soil colloidal particles by exchange with ions from plant root hairs, there is a tendency for soil pH to go down.
true
If we could squeeze all the water from the atmosphere at any one time and measure the average depth around the globe, it would be about one inch.
true
Tornadoes
typically develop in association with an advancing cold front in contact with a maritime tropical air mass occur more often in the south-central US than anywhere else in the world are most commonly associated with supercell storms with a deep rotating updraft known as a mesocyclone can be spawned by tropical cyclones
What controls annual variation of insolation at the top of the atmosphere for any given latitude?
variations in the angle of incidence of the sun's rays and in the duration of daylight
Shortwave radiation includes which parts of the electromagnetic spectrum?
visible light, ultraviolet, and near infrared
You look at the sky and see high, wispy cirrus clouds that gradually get lower and thicker over the next 12 to 24 hours. What kind of front is approaching?
warm
Oxygen
was virtually absent from earth's early atmosphere and only attained its current concentration within the last 400-500 million years
Temperatures at maritime locations tend to be milder than at continental locations because
water has much higher specific heat than soil solar energy can penetrate through the water column vertical mixing of the water column by waves and currents causes absorbed solar energy to be spread through a greater depth below the surface than would occur on land more of the solar radiation absorbed by water bodies goes into latent heat than would be observed on land
What is the most important gas (in terms of its effect on the earth system) that is not included in the list from the previous question?
water vapor
Which of the following is a greenhouse gas?
water vapor methane ozone chlorofluorocarbons
El Nino/Southern Oscillation involves
weakening of the trade winds in the Pacific and "sloshing" of warm water from the western to the eastern Pacific, cutting off upwelling and causing wet conditions along the coast of South America
Why is the dry adiabatic lapse rate different from the moist adiabatic lapse rate?
when an air mass reaches the lifting condensation level, condensation begins to occur and latent heat is converted back to sensible heat, slowing down the rate of adiabatic cooling
Which of the following is NOT a true statement about systems?
when output is greater than input, storage will increase
The product of force x distance is
work
As you climb from the base to the top of a high mountain in a tropical region,
you may encounter a sequence of biotic communities similar to what you would find if you traveled from the equator to the polar latitudes on the earth's surface
Sand, silt and clay are the three end members of the soil texture triangle. What range of particle sizes would be described as silt? (Values in parentheses are alternative definitions of each size class.)
0.002-0.05 mm (or 0.004-0.062 mm)
The area of lowest pressure, thickest clouds, and most intense precipitation is typically associated with which location in the figure shown below?
1
What is the typical efficiency of conversion of energy stored in biomass at one trophic level to energy stored in biomass at the next trophic level?
10%
Average atmospheric pressure at sea level is
1013.2 millibars
Which one of the following coordinates does NOT represent a point that actually exists on the earth's surface?
109o N,85o E
How many degrees wide is each hourly time zone?
15
The average albedo of the earth is
31%
A temperature of 10 degrees Celsius is equivalent
50 degrees Fahrenheit
If the earth's diameter were only half as large as it is now, how many degrees of latitude would separate the equator from the North Pole?
90
How much of the world's water is fresh water?
<3%
How much of the world's fresh water is stored in ice sheets and glaciers?
>75%
What fraction of shortwave radiation reaching the earth is returned to space as longwave radiation?
A little more than two thirds
What is a cyclone?
A low pressure system with closed, concentric isobars
Which of the Koppen climate classes described in the textbook is commonly associated with the region discussed in the previous question?
Af
Which of the following is consistent with the definition of a system that we discussed in class?
Any set of things and their attributes that can grouped together within a boundary that separates them from the surrounding environment a computer with input and output devices, processor, and hard drive the earth's atmosphere
What is the third-most abundant gas in the atmosphere?
Argon
Which of the following is NOT a greenhouse gas whose concentration in the atmosphere has been increased by human activity?
Argon
The imaginary straight line that runs through the center of the earth, and around which the earth rotates is called the:
Axis
Which soil horizon is characterized by illuviation and accumulation of materials transported downward from upper horizons?
B
Which of the following "spheres" occurs at the intersection of the other three?
Biosphere
Color often is diagnostic of conditions in the soil. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Blue-green colors are associated with arid environments
Which kind of soil texture is most likely to retain water or to drain slowly?
Clay
Transmission of heat energy between one material substance and another by direct contact, or from one part of an object to another, is ___________.
Conduction
Which is the least efficient means of transmitting heat energy?
Conduction
What process leads to frontal lifting?
Contact between warm and cool air masses.
Heat energy transmitted by a moving fluid, particularly through vertical currents caused by heating, is called
Convection
What is an easterly wave?
Correct a tropical weather system in the trade-wind belt that has convergent flow and rising air with thunderstorm development on its east side and sinking, divergent air and clear conditions on its west side
What is the cause of "lake-effect" snow?
Correct cold polar air masses moving over warmer lake water pick up moisture and latent heat, become unstable, and are chilled again over the leeward shore of the lake
What happens to rising air under the conditions illustrated in the figure below?
Correct the air mass rises spontaneously and clouds form beginning at altitude A, but the air mass stops rising at altitude B
What makes the wind blow?
Differences in atmospheric pressure between one location and another
What is the connection between El Nino and hurricanes?
El Nino leads to a lower probability of Atlantic hurricanes
All meridians of longitude are parallel to each other and do not intersect; whereas all parallels of latitude intersect at the poles. True or false?
False
The total relief of the earth's surface is great enough that if you were to shrink the earth down to the size of a billiard ball, the surface would be rough and bumpy.
False
Which of the following technologies is based on triangulation of a location on the earth's surface using signals from multiple orbiting satellites?
GPS
Which of the following has the shortest wavelength?
Gamma rays
What is the difference between habitat and niche?
Habitat is the environment where an organism lives and niche describes the way it lives and role it plays in terms of trophic level, feeding habit, how it moves around, migration, reproduction, etc.
What do we call the large-scale pattern of atmospheric circulation between the equatorial region and the subtropics?
Hadley cells
What feature of the general circulation dominates weather conditions in the area marked with a "1" on the map cited in the two preceding questions?
ITCZ
Which mechanism is dominant in raindrop formation in midlatitude clouds?
Ice-crystal process
Which of the following is not a true statement about sea level rise?
If we can limit global temperature change to 2 degrees Celsius, sea level rise should stabilize to a rate of increase of less than 1 foot by the end of this century
The earth emits mainly _________ radiation
Infrared
The spatial distribution of terrestrial biomes on the earth's surface
Is strongly related to the spatial distribution of global climate types
What is the definition of the pressure gradient force?
It is the net force created by a difference in atmospheric pressure between one location and another; the pressure gradient is calculated as the difference in pressure divided by the distance, and the direction is perpendicular to the isobars from high to low pressure.
What is the Coriolis effect?
It is the tendency of a moving object or air mass to veer to the right of its original direction in the northern hemisphere and to the left of its original direction in the southern hemisphere
What do we call the region of low pressure and high precipitation that is a persistent feature of the tropical latitudes, and how does it behave over a typical annual cycle?
It's called the intertropical convergence zone and it tends to migrate seasonally toward the zone of greatest heating, i.e. it "follows the sun" but moves farther over land than over water
The earth reaches perihelion on which date?
January 3
Which of the following statements about soils is not true?
Laterization and a deep red oxidized layer are characteristic of environments with cold temperatures and frequent episodes of freeze and thaw
The angular distance along a meridian between the equator and a given point on the globe is the _______ of that point.
Latitude
Which of the following does NOT have an important influence on the spatial pattern of global moisture regimes?
Latitude Continental vs. maritime location Seasonal shifts in major pressure belts East vs. west coast location Ocean currents ALL of the above affect the global spatial pattern of precipitation
The angular distance along a parallel between the prime meridian and a given point on the globe is the _______ of that point.
Longitude
On which of the following dates is the sun directly overhead at noon on the equator?
March 21
A north-south line on the earth's surface that connects the poles is called a
Meridian
Aerosols are
Microscopic particles from either natural or anthropogenic sources
What conditions are associated with the marine west coast climate?
Mild seasonal variations in temperature, with frequent cyclonic storms and abundant moisture particularly in winter
As your body temperature rises, you perspire more As you perspire, water droplets appear on your skin As the water droplets evaporate, they carry away heat energy, serving to cool you off in order to maintain a stable body temperature
Negative
Which statement about the global carbon cycle is not true?
Net CO2 contributions to the atmosphere have been increasing throughout most of earth history
What quantity is calculated by summing insolation and downward longwave radiation, then subtracting reflected shortwave and emitted upward longwave radiation?
Net Radiation
From the land surface downward to the weathered bedrock, which is he correct order of the different horizons in a soil?
O, A, E, B, C
An east-west circle on the Earth's surface that lies in a plane defined by angular distance from the equator is a:
Parallel
Climates with cold winters, warm summers and precipitation throughout the year are most strongly associated with what feature of the general circulation of the atmosphere?
Polar front
The bending of light rays as they pass through a gas or a liquid is called
Refraction
What process is described by the chemical equation shown below? C 6H 12O 6 + 6O 2 ⇒ 6 CO 2 + 6H 2O + energy
Respiration
Which of the following is true?
Rising air is associated with low pressure and sinking air is associated with high pressure
How is the pH of soil related to environmental conditions?
Rock type may play a role, but generally pH is lower where there has been a longer period of more intense weathering and replacement of base cations by H+; this is particularly common in very humid environments
What type of climate would you expect to see in the area associated with the climograph below? Look at the graph carefully before selecting your answer.
Savanna
The sky as seen from the daylit side of the moon is black; this is not true on the earth because of what process?
Scattering
Which of the following would you find in eastern Wyoming and Colorado?
Semiarid steppe
On which date do we have exactly 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night everywhere on the globe?
September 22
In which layer of the atmosphere does temperature RISE with INCREASING altitude?
Stratosphere
Earth's radius is closest to which of the following?
6,400 kilometers
A temperature of 20 degrees Celsuis is equivalent to
68 degrees Fahrenheit
What is the difference between climate and weather?
An accurate description of climate includes average conditions over time, seasonal patterns of variation, and the range of variation in temperature and precipitation in a region, including extremes. Weather refers to specific atmospheric conditions at a particular point in time.
On the drawing below, which point represents the earth's position with respect to the sun on the vernal (spring) equinox in the northern hemisphere?
B
The largest hailstones are produced by the most intense thunderstorms. Why?
Because more intense thunderstorms have more intense vertical circulation and more powerful updrafts that can resuspend hailstones multiple times until they are too large to be carried by the updraft.
Which statement is true?
In a closed system, there is no exchange across the boundaries, i.e. no input or output A system may be open with respect to energy and the same time may be closed with respect to matter Even if there is no input or output, either energy or matter may be changed from one form to another by processes occurring within the system
Which of the following is a geostrophic wind?
Jet streams
What accounts for the difference in climatic conditions between the northeast and northwest coasts of the U.S.?
Prevailing westerly winds bring maritime air and mild conditions onshore along the west coast and bring continental air and more severe conditions from the interior toward the east coast
Which of the following statements about subarctic taiga climates is not true?
The ground is frozen throughout the year and forest vegetation therefore cannot survive there; only mosses, lichens and herbaceous vegetation occur in these climates.
Humid subtropical and humid continental climates in China have a much more pronounced seasonal pattern of precipitation than comparable climates in the U.S. What is the reason for this?
The influence of the ITCZ associated with the monsoon extends far enough north in Asia to affect even midlatitude climates in China, and the enormous winter high pressure centered over Siberia causes strong dry conditions extending over a broad region
Between 400 and 300 million years ago there was a dramatic reduction in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, from 3000 parts per million to a few hundred parts per million. What accounts for this change?
The spread of forest vegetation over the surface of the continents
A catena is
a sequence of soil types found along a topographic gradient
Phase changes in water
are associated with breaking of the bonds linking water molecules when ice melts and when liquid water evaporates involve the absorption of latent heat in both melting and evaporation involve the release of latent heat in both condensation and freezing may include the direct conversion of ice to water vapor or water vapor to ice
Rossby waves
are large-scale undulations in the upper-air flow of the westerlies occur primarily in winter when temperature contrasts across the polar front are strongest can bring tongues of Arctic air to subtropical latitudes are associated with the fluctuating position of the polar-front jet stream
At what time of day do we usually experience minimum daily temperature?
at or shortly after dawn
When you lift an object against the force of gravity, you add potential energy to that object. Where did the energy come from?
chemical energy was extracted and released from the food you ate by your internal metabolic processes electromagnetic radiation from the sun was captured by photosynthesis and eventually stored as chemical energy made avaialble to you in the food you ate thermonuclear reactions inside the sun yielded radiant energy that traveled across the vacuum of space until it was intercepted by plants on the earth's surface which were later harvested to make food
Which of the following features is NOT typical for tropical cyclones and hurricanes?
convergence at the surface and divergence aloft sinking air at the center over the eye spiral rain bands and extremely high clouds along the eyewall extremely low central barometric pressure fueled by latent heat
The Atacama desert along the coast of Chile and Peru is one of the world's driest deserts. Which of the following describes conditions that play a role in keeping this desert so dry?
cool water offshore due to cold-water currents and upwelling of cold bottom water creates a temperature inversion in the atmosphere that suppresses any tendency of air to rise and generate condensation
Which of the following cloud types is least likely to be associated with a warm front?
cumulonimbus
According to recent news articles,
every month between October 2015 and July 2016 set a new monthly high-temperature record the Pine Island Glacier, part of the West Antarctic ice sheet, lost 267 km2 of ice almost overnight in September 2017 $19 billion worth of real estate in Maryland is now considered to be at risk from sea level rise temperatures in the Arctic were so high this past winter that the North Pole came close to the melting point on at least two occasions
The vast majority of the earth's FRESH water is where?
glaciers and ice sheets
Convective storms occur most frequently
in areas that are affected by maritime tropical air masses
The annual cycle of temperature variation near an east-coast location in the midlatitudes
is fairly similar to the pattern observed at a continental location and not as mild as the pattern observed at a west-coast location
Adiabatic cooling
is independent of the temperature of the surrounding air and is entirely a result of the expansion of an air mass as it rises and is exposed to lower atmospheric pressure
The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere
is only about 1/1000 of 1% of the total volume of water on the globe, but is important because it cycles through the atmosphere very rapidly with an average residence time of only 7 to 9 days
Why do surface waters in the middle of the ocean have such low primary productivity?
lack of availability of nutrients limits the rate of primary production
Which most accurately describes the geographic distribution of earth's major pressure belts?
low pressure in the vicinity of the equator, high pressure in the subtropics, low pressure along the polar front, and high pressure at the poles
Air masses moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico typically belong to which group?
mT
Which of the following is not one of the lifting mechanisms that are important ways of generating precipitation from an air mass
monopoelic
Jet streams are
narrow bands of high-velocity winds at the top of the troposphere; typically there are two in each hemisphere
The rate of carbon fixation in living tissues per unit time after accounting for the amount used to meet the plant's own metabolic needs is
net primar productivity
Which has the lowest albedo?
oceans
Tropical cyclones tend to form
over warm tropical waters at least 5-10 degrees away from the equator
The limiting nutrient for algal growth and the one most likely to cause algae blooms and water-quality problems in freshwater lakes is
phosphorus
If the earth had no oceans,
seasonal temperature variations would be much larger than they are now
Which of the following is associated with the daily cycle of summer heating and cooling at the coast?
sinking air over the land caused by cooling of surface temperatures in the evening, which in turn leads to higher pressure and a wind blowing from the land toward the ocean by early morning greater heating of the land surface compared with the ocean surface during the day, generating rising air, low pressure, and a pressure gradient driving wind from the ocean toward the land by late afternoon
What happens to the annual cycle of temperature with increasing latitude?
temperature generally becomes cooler seasonal variations become more pronounced temperature contrasts between continents and oceans become more pronounced
What is the correct explanation for the observed trend in temperature of the stratosphere?
temperature increases with altitude because the ozone layer in the stratosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation, which in turn heats the air and raises the temperature
Which of the following statements about latent heat and sensible heat is incorrect?
the amount of energy leaving the earth's surface as latent heat is equal to the amount of shortwave radiation absorbed at the earth's surface
The tropopause is
the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere
Why are isotherms generally more irregular in the northern hemisphere and more concentric and simple in the southern hemisphere?
the southern hemisphere is mostly covered by oceans with a continent on the pole, whereas the northern hemisphere has ocean at the pole but has continents alternating with oceans through most of the hemisphere
How can we best characterize atmospheric circulation in the subtropical latitudes?
the subtropics have general sinking of air from above, associated with high pressure and broad anticyclonic flow diverging outward at the surface
The dew point is
the temperature at which air becomes saturated and condensation begins
How do clouds affect the earth's radiation balance?
they reflect incoming shortwave radiation they absorb longwave radiation emitted by the earth's surface they re-emit absorbed longwave radiation both upward and downward low, thick clouds have a net cooling effect (net albedo forcing); high, thin clouds have a net warming effect (net greenhouse forcing)
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum is the biggest change in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration in the shortest amount of time that we know of in the geologic record. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
this event was associated with one of the two greatest extinction events in earth history
A map showing the global distribution of soil types shows a very close match between areal coverage of major soil orders and the spatial pattern of global climate types.
true
Arctic and subarctic climates may have much lower precipitation totals than lower-latitude humid climates simply because cold air cannot hold as much moisture; but in some cases they may still have wet conditions at the surface because the subsurface has permafrost and drainage is poo
true
Earth's climate is affected by variations across all time scales ranging from years to millions of years, but many of those variations follow cycles whose causes can be explained.
true
