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Climate/Global Chang
Climate/Global Change Midterm
Question | Answer |
---|---|
What is static stability | The air's susceptibility to uplift (rise) |
What is the rate of the DALR? | 10*C/km |
What is the rate of the SALR? | 5*C/km |
What is the approximate rate of the ELR? | 6.5*C/km |
What does the ELR stand for? | Environmental lapse rate |
Why is the SALR always lower than the DALR? | SALR is saturated air --> latent heat is released during the phase change and goes back into heating the parcel |
What is unstable air? | Air that will continue to rise if given an initial upward push |
What is stable air? | Air that will resist upward displacement and will sink back to its original level when upward push stops |
What is neutral stability? | |
What is the relationship between the ELR and SALR and DALR in absolutely unstable air? | The ELR (Te) is < SALR and DALR |
What is the relationship between the ELR and SALR and DALR in absolutely stable air? | ELR (Te) is > SALR and DALR |
What is an extreme example of absolutely stable air? | Inversion (ELR is much > SALR and DALR) |
What is conditional instability? | Occurs when ELR (Te) falls between SALR and DALR |
What is and does LFC stand for? | Level of free convection (LFC) is the point at which T of parcel becomes > surrounding air |
What is and does LCL stand for? | Lifting condensation level (LCL) is the point at which the air first becomes saturated |
Does an unstable parcel ever stop rising? Why? | Yes! It eventually hits a layer of stable air (stratosphere). |
What is entrainment? | Mixing of unsaturated air at the margins of parcel. Parcel becomes less buoyant |
How is energy measured? | Calories (c) and Joules (J) |
What is a calorie (c)? | The energy needed to raise 1g of water to 1*C |
How many calories in 1 joule? | 0.239 calories |
What is energy? | The ability/capacity to do work on matter |
What is matter? | Anything that has mass and occupies space |
Work is done on matter when...? | It is pushed, pulled, or lifted |
What is power? | The rate that energy is transferred, received, or released |
What is a Watt (W)? | 1 Joule per second (J/s) |
Is condensation alone sufficient to generate precipitation? Why? | No it would take too long (nearly a week) to form a raindrop |
What are the 2 types of energy? | Potential and kinetic energy |
What is kinetic energy? | Energy in use or in motion (falling raindrops, grains of dust on the wind, flowing river, movement of air molecules) |
What is potential energy? | Energy that hasn't been used yet (gasoline for cars, food) |
What are the 3 processes used to transfer energy? | Conduction, convection, radiation (CCR) |
What is conduction? | The transfer of energy from molecule-to-molecule; more important near surface, and less in the atmosphere (most effective in solids) |
What is convection? | The transfer of energy by mass movement of some fluid (vertical movement) |
What is horizontally moving air? | Advection |
What 2 types of energy can be transferred by convection? | Sensible and latent heat |
When does sensible heat occur? | When energy is added to a substance, increase in temp. (kinetic energy) that can be physically seen |
The magnitude of temp. increase depends on...? | The heat capacity (specific heat) and mass of the substance |
What is heat capacity? | The ratio amount of energy absorbed by the substance to the temp. rise that occurs in the substance |
What is specific heat? | The amount of energy needed to raise the temp. of 1g of a substance 1*C |
What does a high specific heat mean? | It takes more energy to raise the temp. (takes very long to heat up and cool down) |
What is latent heat? | The energy needed to evaporate water or melt ice (it is hidden, but not gone) |
Why does sweating cool us down? | The energy goes into changing the phase instead of increasing the temp. |
Can radiation travel through space? Why? | Yes! It is the only energy transfer mechanism that doesn't need some medium (air, water, solid) to move |
What is radiation? | Electromagnetic waves |
How is radiation measured? | Watts per sq. meter (W/m2) |
How is radiation described? | Wavelengths |
What are the 2 important radiation laws that explain the amount of radiation emitted and its wavelength? | Stefan-Boltzman's Law and Wein's Law |
Describe Stefan-Boltzman's Law. | The higher the temp. of an object, the greater the total amount of energy emitted by that object (E=oT4) |
Describe Wein's Law | The higher the temp. of an object, the shorter the max. wavelength of radiation that is emitted by that object (inverse relationship; as temp. rises, wavelengths decrease) |