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21 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Hadley Cell |
a tropical atmospheric circulation that is defined by the average over longitude, which features rising motion near the equator, poleward flow 10–15 kilometers above the surface, descending motion in the subtropics, and equatorward flow near the surface |
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Troposhphere |
the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere
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Stratosphere |
the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere |
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Albedo |
reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface |
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Saturation Point |
the stage at which no more of a substance can be absorbed into a vapor or dissolved into a solution |
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Adiabatic Cooling |
occurs when the pressure of a substance is decreased as it does work on its surroundings |
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Adiabatic heating |
occurs when the pressure of a gas is increased from work done on it by its surroundings, e.g., a piston compressing a gas contained within an adiabatic cylinder |
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Polar Cells |
though cool and dry relative to equatorial air, air masses at the 60th parallel are still sufficiently warm and moist to undergoconvection and drive a thermal loop |
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Coriolis Effect |
a deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame |
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Gyres |
any large system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large windmovements |
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Upwelling |
a phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usuallynutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water |
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Thermohaline Circulation |
a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by globaldensity gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes |
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El Nino (ENSO) |
associated with a band of warm ocean water temperatures that periodically develops off the Pacific coast of South America. It is a phase of 'El Niño Southern Oscillation' (ENSO), which refers to variations in the temperature of the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and in air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific |
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Rain Shadow |
a dry area on the lee side of a mountainous area (away from the wind). The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them |
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Coral Bleaching |
the loss of intracellular endosymbionts (Symbiodinium, also known as zooxanthellae) through either expulsion or loss of algal pigmentation |
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Photic Zone |
sunlight zone is the depth of the water in a lake or ocean that is exposed to sufficient sunlight for photosynthesis to occur |
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Aphotic Zone |
is the portion of a lake or ocean where there is little or no sunlight. It is formally defined as the depths beyond which less than 1% of sunlight penetrates |
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Chemosynthesis |
the biological conversion of one or more carbon molecules (usually carbon dioxide or methane) and nutrients into organic matter using the oxidation of inorganic molecules (e.g. hydrogen gas, hydrogen sulfide) or methane as a source of energy, rather than sunlight, as in photosynthesis |
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Permafrost |
a thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions |
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Latent Heat Release |
the energy released or absorbed by a body or a thermodynamic system during a constant-temperature process |
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Intertropical Convergence Zone |
the area encircling the earth near the equator where the northeast and southeast trade winds come together |