Exam 9: External Energy Fuels Weather and Climate

Methane has about a 24-times stronger capacity to trap heat as a greenhouse gas than does carbon dioxide.

Adiabatic effects include expansional cooling or compressional warming.

Before life was present on Earth,the atmosphere was full of CO₂,and the average surface temperature of the Earth would have been about 550 ^$\circ$ F.

Sublimation describes the same process as evaporation.

The vertical movement of air is large compared to its horizontal motion.

Energy is absorbed by water when it condenses from vapor.

When short-wavelength radiation from the Sun passes through a planet's atmosphere but long-wavelength reradiation is trapped,the resulting conditions produce _____________.

Much of the midlatitude severe weather in the Northern Hemisphere occurs via cyclones: air masses rotating _________________________________.

If CO₂ were not present in the atmosphere,the average temperature at the Earth's surface would be about 0 ^$\circ$ F.

Water has such a tremendous capacity to either absorb or release heat that it acts as a powerful control or buffer on global climate.

Polar latitudes show a net cooling because the heat radiated to space from the Earth's interior is less than the amount gained from the Sun.

When the relative humidity reaches 100%,excess water vapor condenses and forms liquid water.This temperature is the ________________.

A sloping surface separating air masses that differ in temperature and moisture content is called __________________.

Biologic use of CO₂ has lessened the greenhouse effect to yield the present congenial temperatures on Earth.

The process of changing from a solid to a gas is referred to as ________________.

The altitude where 100% humidity is reached is the

Because of the Coriolis effect,if you are in an airplane at the geographic north pole and point it toward Chicago and fly in a straight line at 500 miles per hour,you will _____________________.

A polar jet is a belt of winds about 600 miles wide,flowing as fast as _________ in its central "core".

The oceans hold a much greater volume of heat than the atmosphere even though the atmosphere has a much larger volume.

When water vapor condenses it,