Quiz #4 Study Guide
Newton's
1st
law
of motion (15 pts).
Given a picture of an object's motion, you should be able
to determine whether a net force is acting on the object or not.
If a net force is present, you should have some idea what
direction it must point. Here
are some examples.
Forces that determine
horizontal wind (20 pts). Pressure
gradient force (PGF), Coriolis force (CF), and frictional force
(F) (surface winds only). Rules that determine the direction and
strength of these forces. Which force can start stationary air
moving? Which of these forces will only change the direction of
the wind and not the wind speed? Which one of these forces can
only change the speed of the wind? Which of these forces is
always perpendicular to the contours on a weather map, which is
always perpendicular to the wind?
Upper level and surface winds
(35 pts). Upper level
winds blow parallel to the contours, surface winds blow across
the isobars toward low pressure. You should know the
directions that upper level winds blow around circular high
and low pressure centers in the northern and southern
hemisphere. In each case you should be able to
determine the directions of the PGF and CF. Here
are lots of examples to study.
How do surface winds blow around H and
L pressure centers in the northern and southern hemispheres? Where
do you find rising and sinking air motions? Here are
several examples.
Sample Questions from the Fall 2000 quiz packet
Quiz #5:
4, 7, 12, 13, EC2 Final
Exam: 10, 13, 18, 26, 27
Thunderstorms (25 pts). Ordinary single cell
(air mass) and severe thunderstorms. How might you distinguish
between an air mass and a severe thunderstorm? Life cycle
of an air mass thunderstorm (3 easy to remember stages). How can
the dissipation of one storm lead to the formation of another?
Thunderstorm features and, in some cases, processes that produce
them: gust front, anvil cloud, shelf cloud, mammatus clouds,
microburst. Wind shear. Why can a storm with a tilted updraft
become stronger and last longer than a storm with a vertical
updraft? Mesocyclone, wall clouds, and hook echoes (on radar).
Tornadoes (25 pts).
Average characteristics: low pressure core, duration,
length of path on the ground, diameter, speed of rotating winds,
speed and usual direction of the movement on the ground. Tornado season (when do the most tornadoes
occur, when do the strongest tornadoes occur).
Life cycle. What causes the tornado cloud? Fujita (and
the newer EF) scale. Tornado winds and damage. Multiple vortices,
suction vortices. Tornado watches and warnings.
Lightning
(30 pts). What
creates the electricity in thunderstorms? Normal distribution
of electrical charge in a thunderstorm. Types of lightning
discharges, intracloud, negative and positive cloud-to-ground
lightning, and upward lightning. Sequence of events in a
multi-stroke cloud-to-ground lightning flash: stepped leader,
upward connecting discharge, first return stroke, dart
leader(s) and subsequent return stroke(s). Unusual types of
lightning and rocket-triggered lightning. Lightning hazards
and safety. What produces thunder? Determining the distance to
a lightning strike. How/why do lightning rods and cars
offer protection from lightning?
Sample Questions from the
Fall
2000 packet.
Quiz #6: 1-5, 7-11, 13-16 Final Exam:
4, 28, 33a, 39, 51
Hurricanes (25 pts). Hurricanes
are given other names in other parts of the world, names one or
two ways in which hurricanes are similar to and different from
middle latitude storms. Where and when do hurricanes
form? Eye, eye wall, spiral rain bands. Low pressure
& converging winds at surface, high pressure & diverging
winds aloft (why is this upper level divergence important?).
Stages of storm development (you really only need to remember
the tropical storm and hurricane stages). Hurricane names.
Storm surge and hurricane damage, Saffir-Simpson scale.
Sample Questions
can be found here
Reviews
Tue., Dec.
1
|
5 - 6 pm
|
McClelland Park 103
|
Wed., Dec. 2
|
4 -
5 pm
|
McClelland
Park 103
|