Study Outline for Geography 103-03 - Exam 2 - Fall 2006
You are responsible for all of the assigned readings in your textbook;
the material in the lecture notes (Lecture sets 6-11); and the assigned
material on the GEODE CDROM and WW2010 Web Site.
Below, you will find a list of material that was emphasized
in lecture. This is not meant to be an all inclusive list of
material that will be on the exam. Study hard and good luck!
I. Earth’s Temperature Patterns
- Changes in daily temperature
(why we have the maximum temperature at around 3-4 p.m.; i.o.w., why there's a lag between maximum insolation and max temperature)
- Concept of air temperature
- Recorded observations
- Temperature scales
- Temperature controls:
latitude, altitude, cloud cover, land-water heating differences
(evaporation, transmissibility, specific heat, mixing, currents) - marine
and continental climates
- Global temperature patterns -
worldwide mean temperatures for January - worldwide mean temperatures for
July; annual range of temperatures
II. Water, The
Hydrologic Cycle, Atmospheric Moisture
- Distribution of water in the
hydrosphere
- Composition of seawater
- The hydrologic cycle
- Phase Changes - Latent Heat Energy
- Atmospheric Moisture - vapor
pressure, saturation vapor pressure, relative humidity, dew point
- Affect of temperature on
Relative Humidity
- Measuring Atmospheric
Moisture
III. Condensation, Precipitation Processes, Clouds, Fog
- Condensation
- Precipitation formation
processes (Ice Crystal Process; Collision-Coalescence Process)
- Forms of precipitation
- Measuring precipitation
- Cloud Classification, Clouds
- Fog (Advection Fog, Evaporation Fog, Radiation Fog)
IV. Atmospheric Stability
- Air Parcel concept
- Hydrostatic Equilibrium
- Adiabatic vs. Diabatic Heating
- DAR, MAR, environmental lapse
rate
- Unstable, stable, and
conditionally-unstable air
V. Air Pressure, Wind, and Atmospheric Circulations
- wind description and
measurement
- scales of motion: micro, meso, synoptic, planetary
- wind related forces (e.g., coriolis, pressure gradient, friction)
- surface air flow, upper-air
flow (curved & straight-line) & related forces
- anticyclones (highs),
cyclones (lows) - Northern Hemisphere vs. S. Hemisphere
- atmospheric pressure
- isobars
- upper-air
westerlies in both hemispheres (why?) - Rossby (Long) Waves, jet streams
- global (general) circulation
- surface winds & vertical circulation cells
- polar front
- primary high-pressure and
low-pressure areas
- connections between surface,
upper-air, and vertical circulations (see excellent fig. in notes)
- local/regional winds:
sea-land breeze, mountain-valley breeze, monsoons, katabatic
winds
VI. Air Masses, Fronts, Mid-Latitude Cyclones, T’Storms, Tornadoes, Hurricanes
- Air masses, air mass
characteristics, air masses that affect North America
- Lifting mechanisms: orographic, convection, fronts
- Types of fronts (warm, cold,
stationary, and occluded)
- Frontal processes; Locating
fronts on a WX map
- Mid-latitude cyclones and cyclogenisis
- Connection between the upper
atmosphere and cyclogenisis (convergence and divergence,
and associated vertical motion)
- Thunderstorm Formation (Life
Cycle of an Air Mass TStorm)
- Lightning, Thunder, Hail
- Tornadoes: formation,
characteristics, spatial and temporal occurrence
- Hurricanes: formation (role
of easterly wave), characteristics, structure, spatial and temporal
occurrence, damage
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