Study Guide for Exam 1 - The Water Planet | GEOG 1250, Study notes of Geography

Download Study Guide for Exam 1 - The Water Planet | GEOG 1250 and more Study notes Geography in PDF only on Docsity! Geography 1250 – Spring 2011 Exam 1 - Study Guide Disclaimer: This study guide is not meant to be an exhaustive review of all materials that may serve as sources for exam questions (lectures, readings, in-class discussion, and videos). Rather, this guide functions as a test preparation aid and covers typical areas of knowledge that will appear on the exam. 1. How is the discipline of geography particularly well suited to the study of our watery planet? What types of tools do geographers use to describe cultural and natural Earth processes? (see first day PowerPoint lecture on Blackboard if you hadn’t joined the class yet) 2. Define relative humidity. How does it relate to absolute/actual humidity and to saturation? What is the dew point temperature and what does it mean in terms of relative humidity? What time of the day is relative humidity highest and lowest and how do these times compare to air temperatures during the day? What does the Heat Index and Windchill Index tell you about humidity or local weather conditions and what do they actually measure? 3. Discuss the four major ways to get unstable rising air to form clouds as lifting from convection, convergence, orographic, or frontal processes. Know which types would likely cause weather in eastern vs. western North Carolina. Know that Westerlies are usually the winds that push low pressure systems (cyclones) with warm/cold fronts across the U.S. What general types of weather are associated with high and low air pressure systems? Be able to identify cold and warm fronts on a weather map (see activity from class for example). 4. What 3 conditions are necessary for clouds to form? How are clouds named? What types of storms or weather are associated with cumulonimbus clouds vs. nimbostratus clouds? What is the difference between rain, snow, hail, freezing rain, and sleet in how they are produced? Why is a measurement from a rain gauge considered a point measurement? 5. Where are thunderstorms likely to be often found, or contrarily almost never seen, in the U.S.? Where are tornadoes likely to occur and what types of weather can create them? 6. Describe ‘normal’ pressure, sea-surface temperatures, and weather characteristics in the Southeast Pacific near Peru. How does the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon change these characteristics? What changes are referred to by in the terms “El Nino” and Southern Oscillation”? What sea surface temperature changes occur during a La Niña event? 7. How do ENSO-El Nino and ENSO-La Nina events affect global weather? How do ENSO-El Nino and ENSO-La Nina events impact hurricane development in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Basins? What does “teleconnection” mean? 8. Under what ocean and atmosphere conditions do hurricanes form? Why do hurricanes dissipate over land? Why do the hurricane forming basins have different seasons of maximum activity? When is the Atlantic basin most active (which months during the year) and in which two places do most Atlantic basin hurricanes begin developing? ECU - V. Reynolds 9. What types of dangers and damage are most likely to result from hurricanes (consider rain, wind, flooding, storm surge)? Which types of damage are more likely to occur along coasts versus inland? What is storm surge and where is the most severe storm surge relative to the eye of a hurricane if you are looking down on it as with a satellite image? 10. On what two hurricane measurements is the Saffir-Simpson Scale system based? What does it tell you about measuring hurricane damage? What are some problems with the Saffir-Simpson Scale in terms of what doesn’t it measure or tell you about a hurricane? 11. What type of naming system is used for Atlantic basin hurricanes? At what point is a hurricane given a name (when they are a tropical depression, tropical storm, or Category 1-5?) Why is the current Atlantic Basin naming system useful for comparing hurricane seasons? Additional Questions from the readings: 12. Why is Forks, WA so humid? Why don’t the people there notice the humidity much? http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4092941.html 13. from textbook chapter on Water Phases, Evaporation, and Transpiration, Humidity, Condensation, and Uplift Mechanisms that starts here: http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/atmospheric_moisture/ phase_changes.html What are the three phases of water? How does water change from one phase to another? Where does the energy for latent heat of evaporation come from? Where does most evaporation on Earth occur? What is responsible for transpiration? What is humidity? How do relative and absolute humidity differ? What is the dew point temperature and why isn’t it the same number (like 32˚F or 60˚F) everywhere? What is condensation and how are condensation nuclei important for creating things like clouds? What are the four lifting mechanisms to get air to rise? How do they work? 14. “Behind The Weather: Strongest El Nino In A Decade”. What are the impacts of El Nino on U.S. weather patterns? How does it affect the jet stream? How and why scientists know El Nino or La Nina is going to happen?http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123380157 15. “Frozen In France? Thank The Arctic Oscillation.” Where is the Arctic oscillation phenomenon located (which parts of the world are impacted?) How did it change in 2010 and 2011 compared to previous decades and what are the results in terms of weather? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122649916 16. From online chapter on thunderstorms. How do the two types of thunderstorms, air mass and severe, differ in their impacts? http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/weather_systems/ severe_weather_thunderstorms.html ECU - V. Reynolds