Term | Definition |
Weather | The condition of the bottom layer of the earth's atmosphere in one place over a short period of time. |
Climate | The term used for the weather patterns that an area typically experiences over a long period of time. |
Rotation | The spinning motion of the earth, like a top on its axis as it travels through space. |
Revolution | One complete orbit of the earth around the sun, The earth completes one revolution every 365 1/4 days, or one year. |
Solsitce | Either of the two times a year when the sun appears directly overhead at the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn |
Equinox | Either of the two times each year ( spring and fall) when day and nigh are nearly equal length everywhere on earth. |
Precipitation | All the form of water that fall to earth from the atmosphere, including rain and snow. |
Front | The boundary between two masses of air that differ in density or temperature. |
Continental Climate | The type of climate found in the great central areas of continents in the Northern Hemisphere; characterized by cold, snowy winters and warm or hot summers. |
Ecosystem | The interaction of plant life, animal life, and the physical environment in which they live |
Biome | The term used to describe a major type of ecosystem that can be found in various regions throughout the world. |
Deciduous | Leaf Shedding: a type of tree that sheds its leaves during one season. |
Coniferous | Cone-Bearing; a type of tree able to survive long, cold winters, with long, thin needles rather than leaves |
Chaparral | A type of natural vegetation that is adapted to Mediterranean climates; small evergreen trees and low bushes, or shrubs |
Savanna | A tropical grassland with scattered trees, located in the warm lands near the equator |
Herbivore | A plant eating animal |
Carnivore | A meant eating animal |
Prairie | A temperate grassland characterized by a great variety of grasses |
Tundra | A dry, treeless plain where temperatures are always cool or cold and only specialized plants scan grow |
Permafrost | A layer of soil just below the earth's surface that stays permanently frozen. |