Quiz #2 Study Guide
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Surface weather maps. A new map is prepared hourly. What time zone or time reference is used? 24-hour clock (what is the local time when it is 17:30 MST in Tucson). Isobars and isotherms. Small horizontal differences in pressure cause the wind to blow. Air motions around high and low pressure centers (northern hemisphere). Strong and weak pressure gradients. Surface convergence and divergence. Rising and sinking air motions. How do wind motions around highs and low affect the temperature pattern? Cold fronts and warm fronts (where is the warm and cold air, what direction are the fronts moving). Typical weather changes associated with the approach and passage of cold and warm fronts (temp. change, dew point change, wind shifts, clouds and weather, rising or falling pressure)

Upper level charts. Ridges (warm air below) and troughs (cold air below). Winds blow parallel to contour lines and from west to east.  How can upper level convergence or divergence affect surface pressure (what would cause surface pressure to increase or decrease)?  Is upper level convergence or divergence needed to cause a middle latitude storm to intensify?

Sample questions (from the Fall 2000 Quiz Packet)
Practice Quiz: 2, 11, 19         Quiz #1: 6, 7, 8, 9, 11         Quiz #5: 2, 8, 10         Final Exam: 7, 10, 17, 21, 34, 47

Energy, temperature and heat.  Kinetic energy - energy of motion.  Temperature (which scale?) provides a measure of the average kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules in a substance.  Heat energy is the total kinetic energy of all the atoms or molecules in a material. Energy units: calories.  What is the relationship between energy added to (or removed from) an object, ΔE, and the temperature change, ΔT, that results?  Specific heat or thermal capacity. Water has a relatively high specific heat (4 or 5 times higher than soil).  A city on a coastline will have a more moderate climate (what does that mean?) than a city located further inland.

Temperature scales.  Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin (absolute) scales. You should know the temperatures of the boiling point of water at sea level and the melting point of ice (same as the freezing point of water) on all three scales. The global average surface temperature of the earth is about what temperature on the Kelvin scale?

Energy transport.
(1) Conduction. Energy is transported from hot to cold by random atomic or molecular motions at a rate that depends on the material (thermal conductivity) and the temperature gradient. Examples of good and poor conductors. An object with high thermal conductivity will often feel cold to the touch because it rapidly conducts energy away from your body.  Our perception of temperature is not a good measurement of temperature.

(2) Convection. Energy transport by organized motion of atoms or molecules (works in gases and liquids but not solids). Free (rising and sinking air) and forced convection. Free convection is a third way of causing rising air motions in the atmosphere.  Wind chill temperature.

(3)Latent heat energy transport.  2nd most important energy transport process.  Six phase change names. For each phase change you should know whether energy is added to a material (absorbed from or taken from the surroundings) or taken from the material (released into the surroundings).

Sample Questions
Quiz #1: 5, 12, EC3          Final Exam: 12, 43, 53

Static electricity and electric fields.  Like charges repel, opposite charges attract. The pattern of electric field vectors (arrows) drawn around a positive charge shows the direction and strength of the force that would be exerted on another + charge placed at any point in the pattern.  Would the electric field at Point X, halfway between a + and a - charge point toward the right, the left, or would the electric field be zero?
+               X               -
Electromagnetic radiation.  The most important of the 4 energy transport processes (why?). Oscillating electric and magnetic fields that can propagate (at the speed of light) through empty space (and materials like glass, air, etc). Radiation can be produced by moving charges. You add energy to cause the charges to oscillate and produce the radiation. Energy reappears when the resulting radiation causes electrical charges somewhere else to move. Wavelength is one way of distinguishing between different types of radiation (frequency is another). Would a slowly-oscillating charge produce long- or short-wavelength radiation? Would this be a relatively high- or low-energy form of radiation? Electromagnetic spectrum. We will mostly be concerned with ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS), infrared (IR) light. What is the wavelength interval for visible light? What is white light? Does red light have longer, shorter, or the same wavelength as blue light? Wavelength units.

Rules governing the emission of radiation.
What determines how much and what type of radiation an object will emit (the same variable is found in both the Stefan-Boltzmann law and Wien's law)? A light bulb connected to a dimmer switch was used to demonstrate. Radiant energy emitted by the earth (300 K) and sun (6000 K).

Sample Questions
Quiz #2: 11, 12d&e, 13, 14, 15          Final Exam:  15, 36

Radiative equilibrium.  Energy balance. Incoming radiant energy (sunlight) is balanced by an equal amount of (but not necessarily the same kind of) outgoing radiant energy, temperature remains constant.

Filtering effect of the atmosphere.  Does the atmosphere mostly absorb, selectively absorb, or mostly transmit UV, VIS, and IR radiation? What gases are important in each case? What does the term window mean? What property makes water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, etc. greenhouse gases?

Greenhouse effect (simplified view).  With an atmosphere (containing greenhouse gases), the temperature of the earth's surface is warmer than it would be without an atmosphere. H2O, CO2, and other greenhouse gases selectively absorb IR radiation. The atmosphere in turn radiates IR radiation into space and back toward the ground. How is it possible for the earth's surface to radiate away more energy than it receives from the sun and still be in energy balance?
*** The following material will not be on this week's quiz ***
What effects do clouds have on nighttime and daytime temperatures? Why?


Earth-atmosphere energy budget.  Two relatively easy questions: (i) What percentage of the sunlight arriving at the top of the atmosphere reaches the ground and is absorbed? (ii) What happens to the remaining sunlight? These next questions are a little harder: (i) Why does the atmosphere emit more energy downward toward the ground than upward into space?  (ii) On average does the earth's surface get more radiant energy from the sun or from the atmosphere?  (iii) Is most of the radiant energy emitted by the earth's surface absorbed or transmitted by the atmosphere?

Sample Questions
Quiz #2: 2, 7, 12a,b,&c,  EC3          Final Exam: 20

Reviews
Mon., Oct. 12
 4-5 pm
 FCS 225
Tue., Oct. 13
 4-5 pm
 Haury 129
Wed., Oct. 14
 4-5 pm
 FCS 225