Study Guide
Study Guide
What is the relationship between the atmosphere and oceans?
What are the 2 key components to the change of season’s on Earth?
Be familiar with Summer Solstice, Autumnal Equinox, Winter Solstice, & Vernal Equinox
-where the sun is overhead, the significance of the day, etc.
Understand the various physical properties of the atmosphere
Composition – what is the general composition of the atmosphere?
Temperature – how does temperature vary with altitude in the troposphere?
What is the Greenhouse Effect? Why is it important?
Pressure – How does pressure vary in the atmosphere w/ elevation?
What is the Coriolis Effect? How does it vary with latitude?
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION CELLS ON A SPINNING EARTH
Understand how pressure varies with latitude and how that relates to atmospheric circulation.
What is wind and what drives wind?
Understand the major windbelts and what drives them.
-trade winds, westerlies, polar easterlies
Be familiar with land and sea breezes and how they form.
Have an understanding of Relative Humidity - how does it vary with changes in temperature?
How do clouds form
-How does temperature change as air rises
-what are the conditions that force air to rise
- what is dewpoint point/saturation?
What is an air mass?
-Have an understanding of continental/maritime polar/tropical
What is formed when unlike air masses meet?
What is the weather like associated with a cold front vs. a warm front?
How do thunderstorms form? What type of clouds are thunderstorms associated with?
How do thunderstorms relate to the formation of a tropical cyclone?
What is a tropical cyclone? What factors must be met for a typhoon, hurricane or cyclone to form?
What is storm surge?
What is the eye of the hurricane?
Where are the strongest winds associated with a hurricane?
Chapter 7
What are the two major types of currents?
What drives each current?
What are some of the differences between eastern and western boundary currents?
What is a gyre?
Have a general understanding of eckman transport.
What is upwelling? What are its impacts? What causes it?
What is downwelling? What are its impacts? What causes it?
What is the Gulf Stream, and why is it important?
What is the West Wind Drift and why is it significant?
What are meanders? What causes them?
What is an eddy and how does it form? How does it differ from a gyre?
What causes El Nino and what are its impacts? What is La Nina?
What causes deep water circulation? Why is it significant?
How is primary productivity affected by nutrient availability and solar radiation availability?
How does productivity vary regionally?
- polar vs. tropical vs. temperate oceans
How does productivity relate to ocean circulation? Why is the development of a thermocline significant?