Review Sheet for Exam 2
EXTREMELY SERIOUS WARNING: This review sheet was made without looking at the exam. There is no guarantee that everything that is on the exam is also on this sheet. Similarly, there is no guarantee that everything on this sheet is also on the exam. The purpose of the review sheet is to help the student understand which topics and key words are most important in this block of the course. Consider yourself warned.
Key terms
longwave radiation, shortwave radiation, solar radiation, terrestrial radiation, Wien's Law, Stephan/Boltzmann's Law, albedo, arsorption, emission, transmission, reflection, scattering, greenhouse effect, atmospheric window, solstice, equinox, noon sun angle, solar declination
dry bulb temperature, wet bulb temperature, dewpoint temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure, saturation vapor pressure, mixing ratio, precipitable water, sling psychrometer, hair hygrometer, saturation
ice condensation nuclei, cloud condensation nuclei, cloud droplet, rain droplet, collision and coalescence, the Bergeron process, supercooled water
cumulus, stratus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, cumulonimbus, nimbostratus
hydrostatic balance, pressure gradient force, Coriolis force, friction, centrifugal force, geostrophic balance, Guldberg/Mohn balance, cyclone, anticyclone, gradients
Key concepts
Understand how the Kyoto Protocol was going to work.
Understanding the roles of SWdown, SWup, LWdown, and LWup in maintaining radiation balance will be important.
There are several questions about relative humidity, vapor pressure, etc. that are similar to those on the quiz.
There are several questions in which the student will look at a picture of a cloud and identify what type of cloud it is.
Understand about "gradients" in general and the Pressure Gradient Force in particular. Know how this relates to the speed of the wind.
Understand geostrophic balance and its implications for the speed and direction of the wind. Know the conditions under which the wind will or will not be geostrophic. Know how the wind behaves when it is not quite in geostrophic balance.
Know how winds rotate around regions of high (i.e. "anticyclones") and low (i.e., "cyclones") pressure in the Northern Hemisphere. AND WHY!
There are a few questions about the Coriolis Force. You will not be expected to understand the physics of how the Coriolis Force works, but you should know which direction the Coriolis Force turns the wind in each hemisphere and what factors influence its strength.
Know the sequence of events that starts with water vapor in the atmosphere and leads to precipitation (condensation, Bergeron process, and collision and coalescence).