Exam Two Review

• Exam 2 is March 26, in class. Hard copy exam

questions will be distributed at 1 pm with
scantron provided. Exam ends at 2:15pm.
• Exam 1 covers Chap 4 (after Albedo) and
Chapter 5
• Close book, close note, turn off phone. No
scratch paper or calculator needed. No
discussion. 8 proctors on site. Potential
cheating reported immediately.
• Review slides and existing quiz questions are
posted on Canvas
 GWP
• Global warming potential (GWP) provides perspective
on the importance of the various gases.
• According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), the “GWP for a particular greenhouse gas is the
ratio of heat ‘trapped’ by one unit mass of the
greenhouse gas to that of one unit mass of CO2 over a
specified time period.”
– Methane is 21 times more effective at trapping heat
than CO2 over 100 years
– Nitrous oxide is 310 times more effective than CO2
over 100 years.
– CO2 has a much longer lifetime in the atmosphere.
 Controls on Climate Characteristics
• Air temperature fluctuates hourly, daily, seasonal
and by location
• Climate characteristics identified by patterns of
variations
• Earth’s radiation budget and movements of air
masses regulate air temperature locally.
– Radiation budget is primarily influenced by latitude,
season and hour of the day.
– Latitude defines the path of the Sun through the local
sky, intensity and duration of solar radiation (day
length and sun angle)
 Changes in Solar Altitude
• Solar altitude – the angle of the Figure 4.20
Sun above the horizon, most
commonly referenced at noon
local time, each day’s local
maximum solar altitude.
– (A) Whenever the Sun is directly
overhead at its maximum angle of
90°, the solar rays are most
concentrated
– (B) When the Sun appears lower in
the sky, the solar altitude is lower
and solar radiation is spread over
Earth’s surface with less intensity
 Earth’s Revolution and the Seasons
Figure 4.25 Seasons change because Earth’s equatorial plane is
inclined (at 23 degrees, 27 minutes) to its orbital plane.
Diurnal lag between solar radiation
and air temperature
when air
temperature
peaks in a day

Figure 4.36 In the absence of cold or war air advection, variations in air
temperature through the course of a 24-hour day may depend more on the
relative fluxes of incoming solar radiation and outgoing terrestrial infrared
radiation.
 Surface Characteristics
• Thermal conductivity differs by
surface types
• Solar radiation warms a dry
surface more than a moist
surface or vegetation
– Moisture in the surface must first
be evaporated
• Dark surfaces, with lower
albedo, will warm quicker than
a light one, with higher albedo
• Microclimate - the result of
surface features influencing the
climate character within a few
square feet to multiple square
kilometers
 Convection
• Convection - transporting heat by fluid motions within
the fluid itself
• Buoyancy - an upward-directed force is exerted upon a
parcel of air by virtue of the density difference
between the parcel and the surrounding air
– Cooler, denser, heavier air sinks downward, replacing
lighter air that rises.
– Ascending warm air expands, cooling until it becomes
denser than surrounding air and sinks back to the ground.
– Cooler air, now in contact with the ground, is warmed and
rises, having been displaced by cooler, denser air
 Clouds
• Clouds are an element in the atmosphere that alters the amount
of radiation reaching the surface, making them a substantial
control on temperatures.
– Composed of water droplets and/or ice crystals
– Can reflect sunlight or scatter the light energy, which diffuses the effect
of radiant energy exchange and results in cooling at Earth’s surface
– Can assist in the greenhouse effect by absorbing IR radiation, so a cloudy
night is typically warmer than a clear night
• A cloud’s capacity to heat or cool depends, most importantly, on
the height of the cloud followed by its size then the constituents
of the cloud itself
• Overall, clouds cool the global climate system
– The more extensive the cloud cover, the cooler the planet
– The less cloud cover, the warmer the planet
 Chapter 5: Water
Properties of Water:
Figure 5.2 When water changes phase,
Latent Heat heat energy is either absorbed from or
released to the environment.
• Melting - phase change from
solid to liquid
• Evaporation - phase change
from liquid to vapor
• Sublimation - phase change
directly from solid to vapor
• Freezing - phase change
from liquid to solid
• Condensation - phase
change from vapor to liquid
• Deposition - phase change
directly from vapor to solid
 Properties of Water: Specific Heat
• Specific heat - amount of heat Substance Specific Heat
that will raise the temperature Water 1.000
of 1 gram of a substance by 1 Wet mud 0.600
Celsius degree Ice (at 0 °C) 0.478
• Specific heat of water is larger Wood 0.420
than land and air. Thus, water Aluminum 0.214
has high thermal inertia - Brick 0.200
resistance to temperature Granite 0.192
change Sand 0.188
• Water heats up and cool off Dry airb 0.171
more slowly than land or Copper 0.093
atmosphere Silver 0.056
Gold 0.031
 Humidity
There are a number of ways of specifying the
amount of water vapor in the air, such as :
• Vapor pressure
• Saturation
• Capacity
• Relative humidity (RH)
• Dew point
 Vapor pressure
• Vapor pressure: the pressure exerted by water
vapor molecules in an air parcel
• Dalton’s law of partial pressures - total pressure
exerted by a mixture of gases equals the sum of
the pressures produced by each constituent gas;
each gas exerts a pressure as if it were the only gas
present.
• Total pressure is the sum of the pressures of all
individual gases.
• More water molecules – higher vapor pressure
– Fraction of total pressure (1% or so)
– If atmospheric pressure is 1013 mbar, 1% is water
vapor: vapor pressure is 10.13 mb (1%x1013)
 Saturation
• Saturation is the condition when the amount
of water vapor is the maximum possible at the
existing temperature and pressure.
• If the air is at saturation, it can not hold more
water vapor. If water vapor enters the air, an
equal amount leaves (e.g. by condensation or
changing to liquid water)
 Saturation Vapor Pressure
Saturation vapor pressure: the vapor
pressure at which an air parcel will be
saturated. It is the capacity of the air to
hold water vapor.

Saturation vapor pressure changes with

temperature. Higher the temperature,
higher the saturation vapor pressure.
Figure 5.10 Variation in saturation vapor
pressure with changing air temperature. • Saturation vapor
pressure is directly
proportional to T
• Nonlinear increase in
capacity with
temperature
• 30°C air has 4 times the
capacity of 10°C air
• Hot desert air holds
more water vapor than
cold polar air.
 Relative Humidity (RH)
• Ratio of the actual amount of water vapor to the
maximum amount required for saturation
(capacity)
• RH= actual water vapor/saturation vapor
pressure * 100
• RH can change with change in air’s water vapor
content or with a change in temperature
 Relative humidity
• Decrease temperature causes an increase in
relative humidity (inverse relationship). Why?
Figure 5.11 Temperature and relative humidity on 9 February 2009 at Washington
National Airport in Virginia.
Dew Point
– Dew point is the temperature at
which saturation occurs (RH =
100%)
– Cool air parcel to dew point and
liquid water condenses
– A good measure of actual water
vapor content
– Relative humidity indicates how
close to saturation, dew point
indicates the amount of water
vapor
 Saturation & Clouds
• Cloud - visible aggregate of tiny water droplets
and/or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere
• Probability of cloud development increases as the
relative humidity nears saturation, either by
increasing water vapor or decreasing temperature
• Cloud droplets and ice crystals form on tiny solid
and liquid particles, known as nuclei, suspended in
the atmosphere
– Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) - aerosols
that act as cloud seeds and promote
condensation of water vapor
 Example
• An air parcel has a vapor pressure of 10 mb. Its
temperature is 20 oC. What’s its RH?
At 20oC, saturation vapor pressure is 22 mb.
RH = 10 mb / 22 mb x 100 = 45.4%
• The air parcel is cooled to 15 oC. If it does not
exchange mass with the surrounding, what is its
RH?
RH = 10 mb / 17 mb x 100 = 58.8%
• What is the dew point of this air parcel?
8 oC
Figure 5.10 Variation in saturation vapor
pressure with changing air temperature.
• Saturation vapor
pressure  T
• Nonlinear increase in
capacity with
temperature
• 30°C air has 4 times the
capacity of 10°C air
• Hot desert air can hold
more water vapor than
cold polar air.
 Mechanisms of Cloud Formation
• Convection: Cumulus clouds form where convection
currents ascend,
– The sky is generally clear where convection currents descend
– The higher ascending convection currents reach, the greater
their cooling by expansion, and the greater likelihood that
clouds and precipitation will form
• Frontal lifting
– Front - narrow zone of transition between two air masses
that differ in temperature, humidity or both
• Orographic lifting - where air is forced upward by
topography
– Rain shadow - dry conditions on the leeward side of
mountain
• Warm front – warm,
humid air mass is less
dense than a cold, dry
air mass, as a cold air
mass retreats, the
warm air flows up and
over the cold air (top)
• Cold front – cold, dry
air displaces warm,
humid air by sliding
under it and forcing the
warm air upward
(bottom)