Meteorology CH 2

most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas

Carbon dioxide is the most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas. It's also long-lived in the atmosphere. Therefore, the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide humans have been releasing into the atmosphere is the main cause of current global warming and resulting climate change.

The freezing of pure water is 32 degrees on the ___________________ scale.

Fahrenheit

_________________ provides a measure of the kinetic energy of the molecules that make up air.

Temperature

_______________ is a characteristic of a material, whereas _________ is an energy transfer process.

Temperature; heat

melting

The change in state from a solid to a liquid

evaporation

The change of a substance from a liquid to a gas

condensation

The change of state from a gas to a liquid

freezing

The change of state from a liquid to a solid

Comparing water and ice, ice is better at reflecting solar energy.

True

Overcast skies result in cooler temperatures because clouds are good reflectors of sunlight.

True

Most abundant greenhouse gas

Water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere, but it doesn't play a role in global warming because the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is strongly dependent on Earth's global temperature (and because water vapor quickly moves back to the surface as precipitation).

thermals

When air at the surface of the Earth warms up, becomes less dense, and will begin to rise

Temperature

a measure of the average kinetic energy of molecules that make up a substance

deposition

a process that occurs in subfreezing air when water vapor changes directly to ice without becoming a liquid first

negative feedback (in the climate system)

a process whereby an initial change in an atmospheric process will tend to either reinforce the process (positive feedback) or weaken the process (negative feedback)

positive feedback (in the climate system)

a process whereby an initial change in an atmospheric process will tend to either reinforce the process (positive feedback) or weaken the process (negative feedback)

Stefan-Boltzmann Law

a relationship between the temperature of a blackbody and the rate at which it radiates energy

Some of the gases in the atmosphere

absorb some of the incoming solar radiation, but much of it goes through the atmosphere and reaches the surface of the Earth, causing it to warm.

when a substance inhibits the passage of outgoing radiation

absorption

the horizontal transfer of any atmospheric property by wind

advection

Melting, evaporation, and sublimation

are cooling processes because latent heat energy is taken from the surrounding air when water undergoes those 2 types of phase change.

Freezing, condensation, and deposition

are warming processes because they result in a release of latent heat energy to the surrounding air.

An object that radiates more energy than it absorbs will ______________

become cooler

The atmospheric greenhouse effect is due primarily to the fact that _____________.

carbon dioxide and water vapor absorb infrared radiation

The heat energy released when water vapor changes to a liquid is called the latent heat of ___________.

condensation

The transfer of heat from molecule to molecule within a substance is called _______.

conduction

the transfer of heat from molecule to molecule within a substance

conduction

the transfer of heat by the mass movement of a fluid, such as water and air

convection

Heat

energy flows from hotter areas to cooler areas; energy in the process of being transferred from one object to another because of the temperature difference between them

During the daytime hours

energy from the sun is transferred to earth via radiation. Most of the sun's radiation comes in the form of visible light.

Earth radiates

heat all the time. Earth emits longer wavelength, infrared energy.

sensible heat

heat that can be measured or felt

What is responsible for the cold feeling that you experience after leaving a swimming pool on a hot, dry summer day?

heat transport by latent heat

As the temperature of an object ______________, the intensity of the radiation emitted by the object _____________.

increases; increases

Earth emits radiation with greatest intensity at _________________ wavelengths.

infrared

Cooler air aloft

is more dense than warmer air and sinks.

The energy of motion is known as __________ ___________.

kinetic energy

As air warms, it becomes __________________ and rises.

less dense

Without the atmospheric greenhouse effect, the average surface temperature of Earth would be ___________________________.

lower than at present.

As the temperature of an object increases, the atoms that make up the object ____________________________.

move more rapidly

Energy transferred by electromagnetic waves is called __________________.

radiation

Lighter colored surfaces

reflect more incoming solar energy, whereas darker surfaces absorb more incoming solar energy.

when sunlight enters Earth and more light is sent backward

reflection

Wien's Displacement Law

relationship between temperature T of a black body and the peak wavelength (lambda max)

wavelength (of energy)

release energy when they are absorbed by an object; distance measured along a wave from one crest to another; the higher the object's temperature, the shorter are the wavelengths of emitted radiation

greenhouse gas

selectively absorb the long wavelength energy Earth is trying to emit to space, resulting in warmer global temperature than would exist if there were no atmospheric greenhouse gases (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone). This is known as the "Greenhouse Effect."

The _______ process involves water molecules going directly from the solid phase to the water vapor phase.

sublimation

The wavelengths of radiation that an object emits depend primarily on the object's _________________.

temperature

Absolute zero

the lowest possible temperature; atoms and molecules will possess a minimum amount of energy and theoretically no thermal motion

albedo

the percent of radiation returning from a surface compared to that which strikes it; Much of the incoming solar energy that strikes light-colored particles and clouds in the atmosphere and light-colored land surfaces (ice and snow, as well as sandy or other sparsely vegetated areas) is reflected back into space.

sublimation

the process in which ice changes directly into water vapor without melting

Kelvin scale

the starting point for a temperature scale

greenhouse effect (atmospheric)

the warming of an atmosphere by its absorbing and emitting infrared radiation while allowing shortwave radiation to pass on through

latent heat

transfers result due to phase changes or compression or expansion of air

scattering

when sunlight strikes very small objects, such as air molecules and dust particles, the light itself is deflected in all directions-- forward, sideways, and backward; Gases in the atmosphere preferentially scatter blue light, resulting in the blue sky we see most of the day.

Radiative equilibrium

when the rate of absorption of solar radiation equals the rate of emission of infrared Earth radiation