Chapter 4

_____ fog, such as steam fog and frontal fog, forms as water evaporates and mixes with drier air.

Evaporation

As surfaces (such as twigs, leaves, and blades of grass) cool below the _____ temperature, water vapor begins to condense upon them, forming tiny visible specks of water called dew.

dew point

At what time of day is the relative humidity normally the lowest?

during the warmest part of the afternoon

Molecules, changing from the liquid state into the vapor state, are _____.

evaporating

In the most simplistic form of the _____, water molecules travel from ocean to atmosphere to land and then back to the ocean.

hydrologic cycle

In which location is dense fog most prevalent?

in coastal margins near the Great Lakes and Appalachian Mountains

Most clouds form in rising air, but the _____ forms in sinking air.

mammatus

The most common high clouds are _____, which are thin, wispy clouds blown by high winds into long streamers called mares' tails.

cirrus

Cumulus (Cu) and Cumulonimbus are typically classified as _____.

clouds with vertical development

Air with a relative humidity greater than 100 percent is said to be _____.

supersaturated

_____ are dark gray, "wet"-looking cloud layers associated with more or less continuously falling rain or snow.

Nimbostratus

_____ satellites follow paths above the Earth that closely parallel the earth's meridian (longitude) lines.

Polar-orbiting

_____ cloud images are used to distinguish between middle and low clouds.

Infrared

_____ is the pressure that the water vapor molecules would exert if the air were saturated with vapor at a given temperature.

Saturation vapor pressure

The most common instrument used to obtain dew point and relative humidity is the _____.

psychrometer