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Sciencevocab ch.11
Ch.11 movement in the atmosphere
Question | Answer |
---|---|
A large body of air covering hundreds or thousands of square kilometers that has a relatively uniform temperature, pressure, and humidity. | Air mass |
An air mass that is warmer than the surface over which it moves. | Warm air mass |
In meteorology, a region with relatively uniform temperature and humidity over which air masses form. | Source region |
An air mass that is colder than the surface over which it moves. | Cold air mass |
The advancing surface of a cold air mass as it moves under a warmer air mass. | Cold front |
A zone of contact between two disimilar air masses where neither is advancing. It usually results in no change in the weather for several days. | Stationary front |
The advancing surface of a warm air mass as it pushes against and over a cooler air mass. | Warm front |
A line of violent thunderstorms that sometimes accompanies an advancing cold front. | Squall line |
A front formed when a cool air mass and a rapidly moving cold air mass trap a warm air mass between them. The warm air mass is lifted, losing all contact with the ground. | Occluded front |
A regional wind system that reverses periodically, alternately bringing wet and dry seasons. | Monsoon |
The horizontal force exerted on a mass of air that has a higher pressure on one side than on the other. | Pressure gradient force |
A high-altitude wind that is controlled by the relative influence of the pressure gradient force and the Coriolis effect. | Geostrophic wind |
In general, a weather system centered on a low-pressure area surrounded by a wind cirulation pattern spiraling counterclockwise in the Norther Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. A hurricane in the Southwestern Pacific and Indian Ocean. | Cyclone |
An area of relatively higher atmospheric pressure. It typically contains a clockwise-rotating wind system in the Northern Hemisphere. | Anticyclone |
A high speed meandering wind current, usually flowing from west to east at altitudes of 15 to 25 km | Jet Stream |
a breeze that blows onshore from the ocean, usually during the daytime | Sea Breeze |
A breeze that blows from shore to sea | Land Breeze |
A breeze that blows up the mountainside from the valley when air high on the mountain heats and rises. | Valley Breeze |
A breeze that flows down the mountain into the valley at night that is caused by cooling air at higher elevations | Mountain Breeze |
Consistent winds extending from the subtropical highs toward the equator, turned by the Coriolis effect into easterlies. | Trade Winds |
Winds blowing consistently from SW to NW betwteen 3o degrees & 6o degrees N & S latitude | Prevailing westerlies |
Winds blowing consistently from NE to SW from the northern polar region, bringing coldm dry air to the northern parts of North America, Asia, and Europe | Polar easterlies |
A permanent low-pressure belt of usually windless air near the equator cause by the vertical rising of warm air | Doldrums |
Bands of nearly permanent high pressure @ approx. 30 degrees N or S latitude caused by descending cold air. | Horse latitude |
The prevailing low-pressure belt @ approx. 60 degrees N or S latitude. | Subpolar low |
An area of high atmospheric pressure @ either pole caused by subsiding cold air | Polar high |
A rainstorm that includes lighting & thunder | Thunderstorm |
A towering cumulonimbus cloud that builds rapidly to high altitudes and usually brings heavy rain, lighting, thunder, and sometimes hail. | Thunderhead |
An electrical discharge that occurs either between clouds or between a cloud and the ground. | Lighting |
Prior to lighting stroke, a zigzag column of highly ionized air that establishes the channel for subsequent lighting discharges and return strokes | Stepped leader |
A lighting discharge from the ground up to a cloud along the ionized path taken by the original strike from the cloud to the ground. | return stroke |
Lighting consisting of branches connected to the main stroke. | Forked lighting |
A violent, narrow, rotating, funnel-shaped local windstorm containing the highest wind speeds measured, extending down from a cumulonimbus cloud. | Tornado |
A tornado that occurs at sea | Waterspout |
In the Atlantic & Eastern Pacific oceans, a strong, large-area cyclonic storm w/ wind speeds exceeding 117 km/h | Hurricane |
What hurricanes are called in the Western Pacific & Indian Ocean regions | Typhoon |
The circular center of low pressure in a hurricane that is characterized by few clouds, relative calm, and vertical air movement | Eye |
The larger- than normal surface waves that proceed outward from a slow-moving hurricane | Storm swell |
A large increase in sea level along the shore in front of low & below hurricane as high winds pile water up against the land, often causing catastrophic flooding & erosion. It is the difference between the measured sea level. | Storm surge |
A metal rod attached to the highest point of a building that prevents damage to the building from a lighting strike by conducting the electrical discharge through cables to the ground. | Lighting rod |