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The gaseous portion of a planet. The planet's envelope of air. |
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one of the traditional subdivisions of Earth's physical environment |
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Where weather phenomena occurs |
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Temperatures decrease w/ height |
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Temperatures increase Smallest layer. |
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Troposphere Stratosphere Mesosphere Thermosphere |
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What are the layers of the atmosphere (starting at the layer closest to earth) |
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What are Earth's two principal motions? |
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Spinning of the Earth around its axis |
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The movement of Earth in its orbit around the sun. |
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What is caused by the Earth's position relative to the sun contually changes is it travels along its orbit. a.k.a. Earth's axis is not perpendicular tot he plane of its orbit around the sun |
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First official day of summer |
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First official day of winter |
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How many degrees is the maximum that the Earth tilts causing solstices |
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What occurs midway/halway between the solstices? |
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The measure of the average kinetic energy in a substance |
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The energy transferred from one objject to another because of a difference in their temperatures. |
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conduction, convection and radiation |
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What are the three mechanisms of energy transfer? |
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The transfer of heat through matter by molecular activity |
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The transfer of heat through matter by molecular activity |
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What is the transfer of heat by mass movement or circulation within a substance? |
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Which type of energy can travel through the vacuum of space. |
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By which type of energy does solar energy reach the Earth? |
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Some energy is absorbed by the object. Substances such as water and air are transparent to certain wavelengths or radiation. Some radiation may bounce off the objects w/out being absorbed or transmitted. |
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What are the 3 things that happen to solar radiation? |
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-Heating of land and water -Altitude -Geographic position -Cloud cover -Ocean currents |
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What factors other than latitude exert a strong influence on temperature? |
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In which is temperature variation the greatest - land or water? |
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What is the most important gas in the atmosphere? |
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The amount of water vapor in air |
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What is the ratio of the air's actual water-vapor content compared with the amount of water vapor air can hold at that temperature and pressure? |
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What is the temperature to which a parcel of air would need to be cooled to reach saturation? |
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What is referred to as air that resists vertical movement |
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Big puffy, fluffy clouds that are in the middle. |
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Sheets or layers that cover much or all of the sky. |
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rain cloud / stormy cloud |
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orographic lifting frontal wedging convergence localized convective lifting |
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What are the 4 mechanisms that can cause air to rise? |
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What occurs when elevated terrains such as mountains act as barriers to air flow? |
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Cooler, denser air acts as a barrier over which the warmer, less dense air rises. |
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When air in the lower atmosphere flows together causing lifting, it is called what? |
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Localized convective lifting |
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What is caused by unequal heating of Earth's surface? |
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drops of water that fall from a cloud. |
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What is the fall of small particles of clear-to-translucent ice |
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In which direction is air pressure exerted |
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The air pressure pushing up on the object |
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The air pressure pushing down on an object exactly equals/blances what? |
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When air pressure increases what happens to the mercury in a tube? |
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When air pressures decreases, what happens to the height of mercury in a column/tube |
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What is the result of horizontal differences in air pressure? |
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Air flows from high to low pressure |
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Does air flow from high to low pressure or from low to high pressure? |
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What is the ultimate energy source for most wind? |
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Pressure differences Coriolis effect friction |
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What are the three factors that control wind? |
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Described how Earth's rotation affects moving objects |
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An immense body of air that is characterized by similar temperatures and amounts of moisture at any given altitude |
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Air mass that forms over land |
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air masses that for over water |
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An air mass that is likely to be dry |
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What type of air mass is likely to be humid |
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a boundary that separates two air masses |
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What type of front forms when warm air moves into an area that was covered by cooler air |
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What type of front forms when cold, dense air moves into a region occupied by warmer air |
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What occurs when the surface position of a front does not move? |
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What type of front when an active cold front overtakes a warm front? |
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A storm that generates lightining and thunder? They product gusty winds, heavy rain and hail. |
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At an given time, how many thunderstorm are occuring on Earth? |
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What forms when warm, humid air rises in an unstable environment? |
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Violent windstorms that take the form of a rotating column of air called a vortex |
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What type of cloud does a tornadoe come from |
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Most tornadoes form in association with what? |
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Whirling tropical cyclones that produce winds of at least 119 kilometers/hour? |
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When do hurricanes generally develop? |
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