Review Sheet for Exam 1
Extremely serious warning: I make no guarantees this sheet contains everything that you need to know for the exam. Similarly, I don't promise you that everything on this sheet will be on the test. I don’t look at the exam when I write this sheet—rather, this sheet reflects some of what I consider to be the most important points from the first unit of the course. The point of the study guide is to help the students recognize which topics and key words are generally the most important.
Important terms:
constant constituent, variable constituent, volcanic outgassing, photosynthesis, source, sink
troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, homosphere, heterosphere, tropopause, stratopause, mesopause, turbopause, ozone, ozone layer, ozone hole, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), inversion
mercury barometer, aneroid barometer, ideal gas law
evaporation, condensation, melting, freezing, sublimation, deposition, transpiration, infiltration, the Hydrologic Cycle, latent heat
diabatic, adiabatic, lapse rate, dry adiabatic lapse rate, moist adiabatic lapse rate, lifting condensation level
Key concepts:
Know about the "constant" and "variable" gases in the atmosphere. Be able to explain how "variable" gases have key "sources and sinks". Be able to explain how some "constant" gases maintain their abundance by having sources and sinks that are in "dynamic equilibrium". Know the relative concentrations of the most important gases. Know about the origin of the atmosphere.
Understand pressure in the atmosphere—how it changes with height (and why), two ways to think about pressure, how it relates to temperature and density, etc. Understand how we measure pressure. Know all the different units for pressure in the atmosphere and be able to state the typical pressure at the earth's surface in each of these units.
Know about Greenwich Mean Time. Understand about contours on a weather map--how to interpret what they mean.
Know the values of the Latent Heats of Condensation, Fusion, Sublimation, etc. (For example, know that evaporating 1 gram of water requires the absorption of 600 calories.) Know which changes of phase are "warming processes" and which are "cooling processes". More importantly, understand WHY these processes either release heat into or absorb heat from the environment.
As always, I strongly recommend going back to the syllabus and reading the "goals and objectives" for the course. Obviously, many of the goals are not relevant to the current test, but the appropriate goals will definitely be on the test.
Copyright 2005 Jon Schrage