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Chapter 13 Vocab
Chapter 13 Scinec
Question | Answer |
---|---|
water cycle | the continual movement of water among Earths atmosphere, oceans and land surface through evaporation, condensation, and preicpitation. |
evaporation | the process by which water molecules in liquid water escape into the air as water vapor. |
humidity | the amount of water vapor in a given volume of air. |
realtive humidity | the percentage of water vapor in the air compared to the maximum amount of water vapor that air can contain at a paticular temperature. |
psychrometer | an instrument used to measure relative humidity, consisiting of a wet bulb thermometer and a dry bulb thermeoter. |
condensation | the process by which molecules of water vapor in the air become liquid water. |
dew point | the temperature at which condensation begins |
cirrus | wispy, feathery clouds made mostly of ice crystals that form at high levels. |
cumulus | fluffy, white clouds, usually with flat bottoms, that look like rounded piles of cotton. |
stratus | clouds that form in flat layers and often cover much of the sky. |
precipitation | any form of water that falls from the clouds and reaches earths surface |
air mass | a huge body of air that has similair temperature, humidity, and air pressure throughout. |
tropical air mass | a warm air mass that forms in the tropics and has low air pressure. |
polar air mass | a cold air mass that forms north of 50 degrees north latitude or south of 50 degrees south latitude and has high pressure. |
maritime air mass | a humid air mass that forms over oceans |
continental air mass | a dry air mass that forms over land |
front | the boundary where unlike air masses meet but do not mix |
occluded | cut off, as ina front where warm air mass is cought between 2 cooler air masses |
cyclone | a swirling center of low air pressure |
anti-cyclone | a high pressure center of dry air |
storm | a violent disturbance in the atmosphere |
thunderstorm | a small storm often accompained by heavy precipiation and frequent lightning. |
lightning | a sudden spark, or energy, dishcharge, caused when electrcity jump between parts of a cloud,between nearby clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. |
tornado | a rapidly, whirling funnel-shpaped cloud that reaches down froma stprm cloud to touch earths surface. |
hurricane | a tropical storm that has winds of about 119 kilometers per hour or higher |
storm surge | a "dome" of water that sweeps across the coast where a hurrican lands. |
meteroloigist | a scientsit who studies the causes of weather and tries to predict it. |
isobar | a line on a weather map that joins places that have the same air pressure. |
isotherm | a line on a weather map that joins places that have the same temperature. |