General Meteorology I

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. What exactly is meteorology? the study of the earth's atmosphere and weather phenomena the study of meteors the study of stars the study of clouds

2. In what part of the atmosphere does the vast majority of our weather take place? the mesosphere the troposphere the stratosphere the ionosphere

3. What are the three most widely recognized branches of meteorology? physical, dynamical, and synoptic local, regional, and global physical, chemical, and geographical forecasting, climatological, and theoretical

4. If you study synoptic meteorology what do you concentrate on? the physics of atmospheric motions charts, weather maps, satellite information, sounding data air pollution air-sea interactions

5. So what exactly is the primary cause of the earth's weather (in the broadest sense)? the latitudinal variation of incident solar radiation the movement of air from areas of higher pressure to areas of lower pressure the earth's rotation coupled with its tilted axis the weather gods

6. In the northern hemisphere, which way does air move/flow near areas of high pressure? directly towards low pressure counter-clockwise clockwise north to south

7. Which of the following answers most accurately describes how air pressure varies with height in a standard atmospheric profile? pressure decreases with increasing height at a rate proportional to the inverse of the fourth power of height pressure decreases linearly with increasing height pressure decreases nearly exponentially with increasing height pressure increases with height (just like it increases with depth in the ocean)

8. What is the most highly variable gas in our atmosphere (i.e., which gas's concentration fluctuates the most in time and space)? oxygen water vapor nitrogen carbon dioxide

9. Which of the following terms best describes air moving from one location to another in the vertical or horizontal? conduction advection convection radiation

10. And last but not least, why is the sky blue? largely due to refraction largely due to Rayleigh Scattering largely due to non-selective scattering largely due to absorption and thus the excitation of air molecules