ch17 atmosphere
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Created by:
lindseyeichelman on January 15, 2011
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21 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 weather | the state of the atmosphere at any given time and place mostly nitrogen and oxygen |
| the source of all clouds | water |
| why is the ozone layer crucial to life on earth | it absorbs harmful uv rays from the sun. without it earth would be uninhabitable for many organisms |
| troposphere | temperature decreases with increase in altitude all important weather phenomena occur here thickness varies with latitude and season temperature drop continues to about 12km |
| stratosphere | temperature remains constant to a heigh of 20km the begins to gradually increase because the atmospheres ozone absorbs hot uv rays |
| mesosphere | temperature decreases until mesopause |
| thermosphere | has no well defined limit temperature increases because of sun oxygen and nitrogen absorb shortwave, high energy solar radiation |
| radiation | transfer of heat through space by electromagnetic waves travels out in all directions from source can travel through the vacuum of space/no material needed |
| convection | transfer of heat by mass movement or circulation within a substance atoms and molecules are free to move about median-fluids=oceans and air solids=earths matels |
| conduction | the transfer of hear through matter by molecular activity energy of molecules by collisions from once molecule to another median=metals |
| rotation | spinning causing day and night |
| revolution | earth going around the sun creating years |
| what causes seasons | tilt of the earth |
| how much does the earth tilt | 23.5 degrees |
| solstice | describes when the tilt of the earths axis is realtive to the sun at the maximum -23.5 degrees |
| equinox | no tilt od the earths axis relative to the sun 12 hours of light and night |
| why does only about half of incoming solar radiation reach the surface | scattering and reflecting off clouds/atmosphere |
| isotherms | lines that connect points that have the same temperature |
| albedo | percent of solar radiation reflected by a surface |
| factors that exert a strong influence on temperature | latitude heating of land and water altitude geographic position cloud cover ocean currents |
| greenhouse effect | the heating of earths surface and atmosphere from solar radiation being absorbed and emitted by the atmosphere maint by water vapor and carbon dioxide |
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