Term
| What produces a variety of weather? |
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Definition
| Combination of Earth's motions and energy from the sun |
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Term
| What is the climate based on? |
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Definition
| Climate is based on observations of weather that have been collected over many years |
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Term
| What is air a mixture of? |
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Definition
| Air is a mixture of different gases and particles each with its own physical properties. The composition of air varies from time to time and from place to place. |
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Term
| What two gases make up 99 percent of dry air? |
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Definition
| Nitrogen and oxygen make up 99 percent of the volume of clean, dry air |
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Term
| What gas plays a significant role in heating the atmosphere? |
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Definition
| Carbon dioxide is an active absorber of energy given off by earth. |
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Term
| What is the source of all clouds and precipitation? |
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Definition
| Water vapor id the source of all clouds and precipitation |
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Term
| What are some particles that remain suspended for a long period of time? |
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Definition
| Sea salts frome breaking waves, fine soil blown into air, smoke and soot from fires, pollen and microorganisms lifted by the wind, and ash and dust from volcanic eruptions |
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Term
| When do oxygen atoms split into single atoms of oxygen? |
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Definition
| They split when they absorb ultraviolet radiation emitted from the sun |
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Term
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Definition
| Ozone absorbs harmful UV radiation from the sun. Our planet would be uninhabitable for many living organisms if ozone wasn't there. |
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Term
| What counts for nearly half the primary pollutant by weight? |
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Definition
| Emissions from transportation vehicles |
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Term
| What are secondary pollutants? |
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Definition
| They are not emitted directly into air. They form in the atmosphere when reactions takes place among primary pollutants and other substances |
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Term
| What are photo chemical reactions? |
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Definition
| Reactions triggered by strong sunlight |
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Term
| What is atmospheric pressure? |
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Definition
| Atmosphere pressure in simply the weight of the air above |
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Term
| How many layers is the atmosphere divided into? |
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Definition
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Term
| In what layer do most weather phenomena occur? |
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Definition
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Term
| Where does most energy that drives weather and climate come from? |
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Definition
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Term
| What create winds and dives the oceans currents? |
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Definition
| It is create the unequal heating of earth that creates the winds and drives the ocean currents. These movements transport heat from the tropics toward the poles in an attempt to balance energy differences. The results of these processes are the phenomena we call weather |
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Term
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Definition
| The spinning of earth about its axis |
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Term
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Definition
| Movement of earth in its orbit around the sun |
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Term
| What are the degrees the earth is tilted? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the length of daylight determined by? |
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Definition
| It is determined by earths position in orbit |
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Term
| What are three mechanisms for energy transfer? |
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Definition
| Conduction, convection and radiation |
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Term
| What can radiant energy travel through? |
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Definition
| Radiant energy can travel through the vacuum of space |
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Term
| Do hot or cold objects radiate more energy? |
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Definition
| Hotter objects radiate more total energy per unit area than colder objects do |
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Term
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Definition
| Reflection occurs when light bounces off an object |
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Term
| Does land or water heat to higher temperature faster? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is a coast called in which the winds blow from the ocean onto the shore? |
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Definition
| Albedo in the fraction of the total radiation that is reflected by any surface |
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Term
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Definition
| albedo is the fraction of the total radiation that is reflected by any surface. many clouds have a high albedo and therefore reflect a significant portion of the sunlight that strike them back. |
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Term
| What does the extend of clouds cover the influence? |
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Definition
by reducing the amount of incoming solar radiation, the maximum temperatures on a cloud-cover day will be lower than on a day when the clouds are absent and the sky is clear.
at night, clouds have the opposite effect. Clouds act as a blanket by absorbing outgoing radiation emmited by earth and reradiating a portion of it back to the surface. thus, cloudy nighttime air temperatures do not drop as low as they would on a clear night. the effect of the cloud cover is to reduce the daily temperature range by lowering the daytime maximum and raising the nighttime minimum |
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Term
| What type of lines connects points of the same temperature? |
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Definition
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