Term
-Humidity
-absolute
-specific
-relative |
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Definition
-the amount of water vapor in the air
-volume
-mass- measures how much water is in the air
-water vapor/ capacity- how close the atm is to saturation |
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Term
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Definition
| saturation is reached at this temp when cooled |
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Term
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Definition
- DRY- 10 degrees C/ 1000 m
-Saturated- 6 degrees C/ 1000m |
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Term
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Definition
| evaporation from soil and plants comes in form of water vapor |
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Term
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Definition
| upper limit amount of water vapor in atmosphere |
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Term
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Definition
| gas to solid or solid to gas |
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Term
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Definition
| less water in air, dry, water condenses |
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Term
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Definition
| large body of air that has a uniform climate, originates from the source area |
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Term
| North American air masses |
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Definition
continental polar- artic, dark, frozen, snow, cold, dry air
continental tropical- sw us and nw mexico, hot dry
maritime polar- n pacific, mild moist air
maritime tropical- gulf of mexico, warm, very moist |
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Term
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Definition
| most significant atmospheric disturbance, 1000 miles wide, low pressure, cool air in the north and warm air in the south. precipitation in the warm front, travels west to east, cold front moves faster than the warm front- occluded front of intense rain and wind, mainly in winter, takes 3-6 days to develop |
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Term
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Definition
| stays in the same are for days, stable dry conditions, high pressure, in the summer |
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Term
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Definition
| hurricanes, intense low pressure disturbances in the tropics, 100-600 miles with winds greater than 73 mph, when move to land they die out, heavy rainfall |
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Term
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Definition
| vertical air motion, early-cumulus stage- updraft and cloud formation, mature stage- most active with rain, wind, lightening, and thunder there is up and down draft, dissipatiing stage- light rain, only down draft |
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Term
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Definition
| most destructive disturbance, deep low cell, sw to ne |
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Term
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Definition
Global mean: 100 cm/yr
2.5 cm in all atm |
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Term
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Definition
| intense precipitation (short lived and spotty), |
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Term
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Definition
| uplift is slow, gentle precipitation |
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Term
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Definition
| mountains, air lifts and cools, and once it goes on the other side there is a rain shadow desert |
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Term
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Definition
| vegetation represents climate, along with temperatures and precipitation |
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Term
Tropical
-moist
-monsoon
-wet and dry |
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Definition
-warm temperatures, little seasonal variation in temp
- high precipitation, wet all year on the equator
- there are periods of dry season
-seasonal precipitation, very dry and droughts |
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Term
Dry
-subtropical steppe desert
-midlatitude steppe desert |
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Definition
-30% of all land, extreme variability in rainfall
-semi arid and arid Hadley cells
-rain shadow deserts, no moisture |
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Term
mild midlatitue
- mediterranean
-humid subtropical
-marine west coast |
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Definition
-different
-west coast, dry summers, wet winters, not really cold
-east coast, maritime tropical air masses, more precipitation in the summer
- warm winter, cool summer, precipitation even throughout the year (wet) |
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Term
severe midlatitude
-humid continental
-subartic
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Definition
-continental climate, large annual temp. range, cold winter, warm summer
-cold winter, precipitation is even or in the summer
-unbelievably cold winter, dry, largest annual temp. range |
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Term
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Definition
-10% of land mass
-permanently frozen ground, seasonal thaw, vegetation but no trees
- below zero year round, snow, no vegetation |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| (today) 100,000 yrs. to go from interglacial to glacial, back to interglacial |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| warming 14,00 yrs. ago was interrupted to glacial conditions of 1,300 yrs. of cold (mini icevage) |
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Term
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Definition
| 1000-1200, cold period back to warm period |
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Term
reason for temp change
-continental drift
-solar variability
-orbital variations
-autovariations
-human impacts |
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Definition
-content movement changes ocean circulation- could explain ice ages
-variations in radiation (sun spot record)
-way earth orbits sun- eccentricity 100,000 yrs, obliquity 40,000 yrs, precession 20,000 yrs
-due to internal process by itself
- global warming CO2 |
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