Exam 2 Study Guide Chapter 6 The Atmosphere and the Oceans Key Terms Solar constant 2 calories per square centimeter per minute cal cm2 min Assuming no atmosphere amount of solar radiation at a surface perpendicular to the rays Heat budget Amount of the sun s heat Earth receives balanced out by the amount lost due to radiation and reflection Sea ice Frozen Sea water Pancakes Broken pieces of sea ice that are in the shape of pancakes a few inches to a few feet Ice floe Chunk of ice less than 6 miles at its biggest dimension formed by pancakes freezing together Fast ice Sea ice attached to land or shallow parts of the continental shelf Drift ice Ice that is not attached to land floats freely Pack ice Another term for ice that is driven together in a nearly continuous mass Iceberg Huge mass of land ice that breaks away from a glacier and floats at sea Troposphere Lowest layer of atmosphere ground to 17km temperature decreases as altitude increases Tropopause min temperature zone before stratosphere 12 to 17 km Stratosphere Second lowest layer of atmosphere 17 to 56km temperature increases with increase in altitude Stratopause max temperature zone before mesosphere 50 to 56km Ozone Occurs in the stratosphere a form of oxygen that absorbs ultraviolet radiation O3 Mesosphere Third lowest layer of atmosphere 50 to 90km temperature decreases with increase in altitude Mesopause min temperature zone before thermosphere 85 to 90km Thermosphere Outermost layer of atmosphere 90km to 500km or space temperature increases with increase in altitude Greenhouse effect Earth s atmosphere allows infrared radiation in but greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and water vapor absorb what is bounced off Earth s surface and trap the heat in the atmosphere This results in a gradual increase in global average temperatures Atmospheric pressure Force exerted by the atmosphere above a certain point caused by gravity low pressure lower pressure than average high pressure higher pressure than average Coriolis effect The deflection of moving air relative to Earth s surface caused by Earth s rotation deflects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere Trade winds Wind system from 30 S to 30 N travel from latitude lines diagonally to the east toward the equator winds are northeasterly in the northern hemisphere and southeasterly in the southern hemisphere winds named by origin not direction they go towards Westerlies Wind systems blowing from the west between latitudes 30 N to 60 N and 30 S to 60 S winds are southwesterly in the northern hemisphere and northwesterly in the southern hemisphere Polar easterlies Winds blowing from the poles to 60 N and 60 S winds are northeasterly in the northern hemisphere and southeasterly in the southern hemisphere Doldrums Area of rising air near the equator winds are calm and variable Horse latitudes Area of high pressure near 30 N and S winds are calm and variable Intertropical Convergence zone ITCZ The formal name for the zone of low pressure and rising air near the equator zone where the trade winds converge about 3 to 10 N climatic equator Monsoon Name for seasonal winds that bring heavy rainfall Onshore Direction towards the shore Offshore Direction away from shore Rain shadow Area protected from rain by a mountain or island caused by the wind Orographic effect Precipitation patterns caused by the flow of air over mountains Hurricane Severe tropical storm at sea with winds of 120km 73mi per hour or more Form when surface temperatures exceed 27 8 C 82 F Generally applied to Atlantic ocean storms Typhoon Cyclone Severe tropical storm originating in the western pacific ocean basically a hurricane that forms in the pacific ocean Storm surge Elevation of the sea surface beneath the center of a hurricane or typhoon caused by the low pressure and high winds of the storm 95 of surge is caused by winds Southern oscillation Periodic reversal of low and high pressure areas in the pacific ocean This causes trade winds to weaken or reverse direction and push the pocket of warm water in the western pacific towards the east pacific El Ni o Wind driven reversal of the pacific equatorial currents causing warm water to move toward the coast of the Americas La Ni a Colder than normal surface water in the eastern tropical pacific occurs between El Ni o events Quiz Questions Why does the intensity of radiation per square meter of ground vary with latitude Because it hits the earth s surface at different angles closer to 90 degrees more intensity What is a heat budget Amount of the sun s heat Earth receives balanced out by the amount lost due to radiation and reflection List the various processes involved in Earth s heat budget Absorption of the sun s energy buy the atmosphere clouds land and water heats the earth infrared long wave radiation from the earth and atmosphere cools the earth Discuss how heat capacity is different in land and water and what that does to temperature changes Water has a higher heat capacity than land so it takes much more energy to increase water temperature This causes land to have a much larger temperature range than water What is the difference between sea ice and icebergs Sea ice is frozen seawater Icebergs are land ice broken off from glaciers floating in the sea What are the layers in the Atmosphere From lowest latitude to highest Troposphere Stratosphere Mesosphere Thermosphere How and why does temperature vary with altitude within the Troposphere Temperature decreases as altitude increases This is because the it is heated from the bottom by earths outgoing radiation and the energy decreases the further away you get min temp zone called tropopause What are the major gases that make up the composition of the Atmosphere Major gasses are nitrogen 78 and oxygen 21 argon neon helium hydrogen and xenon are all less than 1 What is the greenhouse effect List some examples of greenhouse gases Solar radiation entering the atmosphere but being absorbed by CO2 and not exiting the atmosphere causing the atmosphere and earth to gain more heat than it loses Examples of greenhouse gasses water vapor carbon dioxide methane nitrous oxide and ozone What is the Ozone layer and what does it do A layer of ozone O3 molecules located in the stratosphere This layer absorbs ultraviolet radiation from sunlight lowering the amount of ultraviolet light at Earth s surface protecting living organisms from harmful high intensity ultraviolet radiation
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