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100 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What percent of incoming sunlight is absorbed by Earth's surface and re-radiated as IR radiation |
45% |
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Latitude vs Radiative flux |
Higher latitude, lower flux Lower latitude, higher flux |
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Vertical Air movement vs Density |
Less dense air uplifts More dense air subsides |
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Horizontal Air movement vs Pressure |
Moves from high to low pressure zones |
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What part of the atmosphere is convective, contains earth's weather |
Troposphere |
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Why the ozone layer warms the stratosphere |
Absorption of UV radiation because of the ozone layer |
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How the troposphere is warmed |
From the bottom, Earth's surface absorbs sunlight and reradiates it, making it convective |
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How the stratosphere is warmed |
From the top, not convective because there's no tendency for air to rise |
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How to calculate net radiation |
Incoming solar radiation - outgoing terrestrial radiation |
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What a negative net radiation means, what a positive net radiation means |
Negative - energy deficit, earth's temperature cools Positive - Energy surplus, earth's temperature increases |
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Net radiation vs latitude |
Equator - constantly getting warmer, energy surplus Polar - constantly getting colder, energy deficit |
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Does heat flow towards or away from the poles, why? |
Towards Water evaporates from equator and is carried by wind to higher latitudes, its condensation releases heat Warm current flow toward higher latitudes and releases heat before returning or sinking |
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Altitude vs air pressure |
Altitude increases, air pressure decreases (exponentially) Altitude decreases, air pressure increases |
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How/low pressure zones and wet/dry |
Low pressure - wetter, tropical air is warm and rises by convection High pressure - drier |
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Latitude deserts are found |
30° N and S |
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Direction of Coriolis in N and S hemisphere |
N - right S - left |
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Coriolis effect vs latitudes |
Equator - 0 Increases with latitude |
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Coriolis effect vs speed |
As speed increases, Coriolis increases |
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How tropical cyclones develop |
Over warm water |
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How tropical cyclones are sustained |
Latent heat via positive feedback loop |
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Why tropical cyclones don't cross the equator |
There's no Coriolis effect at the equator |
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What produces the seasons |
Obliquity |
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Angle of solar declination at the equinox and solstices |
Equinox: sun is directly over equator Solstices: sun is at 23.5° |
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Percent of earth's water in oceans vs freshwater |
97% oceans, 3% freshwater |
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Percent of Earth's water in surface water if 0.3% of freshwater is surface water |
0.009% |
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What accounts for missing energy transport poleward at mid-latitudes? |
Latent heat
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How much salt is in seawater, what are they |
3% of the ocean (chloride and sodium) |
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How salinity is increased |
Sea ice formation Evaporation |
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How salinity is decreased |
Runoff Precipitation |
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Direction of gyres in N and S hemisphere |
N - clockwise S - counterclockwise |
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What direction Ekman transport moves water in a gyre |
towards the center |
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Cause of surface ocean circulation |
Dominated by large scale gyres Atmospheric winds (Coriolis effect) |
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Cause of deep water circulation |
Ekman transport |
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How many ° surface water is deflected and direction in N and S hemisphere |
20-45° from wind direction N- right S- left |
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Convergence/divergence vs downwelling/upwelling |
Convergence- downwelling because it's the sinking of water due to accumulation of converging water Divergence - upwelling because it's the rising of colder air to replace warm, diverging water |
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Cause of coastal upwelling |
Wing blows along the coastline and causes surface water to move away, so water from deep ocean rises up and replaces it |
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Geographic area of ENSO |
Equatorial Pacific Ocean |
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Effects of coastal upwelling along west coast of South American during El Nino |
Trade winds reverse direction Warm water dragged back east No upwelling possible |
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At what latitudes does the ocean transport the most heat energy poleward? |
Lower latitudes, 10-30° |
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Temperature vs density |
Lower temp, higher density |
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Salinity vs density |
Higher salinity, higher density |
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How deep water forms |
Sea ice formation increases salinity and density, leads to sinking of surface water (creates North Atlantic bottom water) |
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Advection |
Transfer of heat or matter by flow of fluid, especially horizontally in air or sea |
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Autumnal equinox |
Night and day are the same length, passing from north to south |
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Barometric Law |
States that atmospheric pressure decreases by a factor of 10 for each 16km increase in altitude |
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Continentality |
Difference between continental and marine climates (increased range of temperatures that occur over land compared to water) |
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Convection |
Transfer of heat energy by circulation motions of fluid heated from below |
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Convergence |
Inward movement of air or water to a region in the atmosphere or ocean |
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Coriolis Effect |
Tendency for a fluid moving across Earth's surface to be deflected from its straight line path |
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Covalent bond |
Electron pairs are shared between atoms |
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December solstice |
23.5° angle in the south |
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Symbol for density |
p |
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Divergence |
Outward movement of air or water from a region in the atmosphere or ocean |
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Downwelling |
Sinking of surface water caused by convergence of water |
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Easterlies |
Wind blowing from the east to the west (occurs in polar and tropic regions) |
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Eastern boundary current |
Shallow, broad, slow flowing Transports cold water from higher to lower latitudes |
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Ekman transport |
Net direction of transport in the water column as a result of the Ekman spiral, 90° |
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El Nino |
Major shift in the oceanic circulation |
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El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) |
Climatic event in the tropical Pacific Ocean, main area of surface convection moves from the western to the central Pacific, causes anomolies in mid latitude locations |
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Groundwater |
Water that penetrates through soil and rock, collected below the surface |
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Gyre |
Large, circular circulation pattern in the ocean |
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Hadley Cell |
Process by which an air mass undergoes convergence at the tropics and divergence at 30° N or S |
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Insolation |
Amount of exposure to sun's rays |
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Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) |
Region of the tropics where surface heating causes uplift in the atmosphere, allowing subtropical air to flow inward and produce a convergence zone |
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Ion |
atom/molecule with a net electric charge due to loss or gain of electrons |
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Ionic bond |
Transfer of electrons and electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions |
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Jet stream |
Belts of high wind speeds, occurring where pressure gradient is steepest |
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June solstice |
23.5°, in the North |
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La Nina |
Opposite phase of the southern oscillation from el nino |
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Latent heat of fusion |
Energy required to cause phase change between a solid and liquid Requires addition of energy Liquid to solid releases energy |
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Latent heat of vaporization |
Energy required to cause a phase change between liquid and gas Requires addition of energy Gas to liquid releases energy |
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Meridional circulation |
North-south tropospheric circulation |
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North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) |
Cold, dense water that forms in the northernmost Atlantic Ocean, sinks, and flows south into the rest of the Atlantic Ocean |
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Obliquity |
Angle of a planet's spin axis |
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Ozone layer |
Chemically distinct region of the stratosphere the protects the Earth's surface from UV radiation |
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Partial pressure |
Pressure of a gas would exert if it were the only gas present |
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Polar front |
Zone of steep temperature gradients Formed at 60° N and S Cold air meets warm air moving poleward from the subtropics |
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Polarity |
Direction of orientation of a magnetic field |
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Runoff |
Transfer of water from land to the oceans |
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How salinity is expressed |
Parts per thousand |
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Saturation vapor pressure |
Vapor pressure where rate of condensation = rate of evaporation Increases with temperature |
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Sea surface temperature anomaly |
Surface ocean warming leads to stratification (stable) |
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Solar declination |
Latitude where the sun is directly overhead at noon |
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Solar zenith angle variable |
q |
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Solar zenith angle |
Angle between the sun and a line drawn perpendicular to the ground, 0 when directly overhead |
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Solvent |
A substance that can dissolve another substance |
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Stratosphere |
Stable atmospheric layer between 10 and 50km above the surface Temperature increases with altitude Contains most of the Earth's ozone |
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Subsidence |
Sinking air from higher levels in the atmosphere down towards the surface |
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Thermocline |
Layer in a large body of fluid in which temperature changes more rapidly with depth |
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Thermohaline circulation |
Circulation of the deep oceans due to density differences that result from variations in temperature and salinity |
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Trade winds |
Northeast/southeast wings in the tropics |
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Hurricanes vs Typhoons |
Hurricanes - in the atlantic Typhoons - in the pacific |
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Direction of tropical cyclones in hemisphere |
N - CCW
S - CW |
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Tropic of Cancer |
23.5° North Sun is directly overhead in June |
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Tropopause |
Interface between the troposphere and stratosphere |
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Uplift |
Tropical air is warmer, less dense, and rises by convection |
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Upwelling |
Rising of colder water to replace warm, diverging water |
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UVA UVB UVC |
A - 5% absorbed (315-400nm) B - 95% absorbed (280-315nm) C - 100% absorbed (100-280nm) |
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Vapor pressure |
Pressure exerted by water vapor |
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Westerlies |
Winds blowing from west to east, from mid latitudes |