ATMS 101 Final Exam Study Guide
Bring a SCANTRON form to the exam, and please wait outside the room until we welcome you inside.
This is a list of the general tropics covered and is NOT COMPREHENSIVE See the syllabus for all topics and assigned reading.
Weather variables, units, and measurement
- temperature
- pressure
- dew point temperature
- wind speed and direction
- precipitation
- weather satellites and common cloud signatures
- vertical structure of pressure
Representation of weather information on maps
- surface weather station model; wind plotting; weather symbols
- surface maps: isobars and front symbols
- upper-level station model for radiosonde observations
- isobaric charts
Origin and composition of the atmosphere
- atmospheric consituents
- origin and evolution of the atmosphere
- vertical structure of the atmosphere
- atmospheric layers
Heat and heat transfer
- heat and heat capacity
- conduction
- convection
- radiation
- transmission
- absorption
- reflection
- scattering
- perfect radiators (blackbodies); selective absorbers
- greenhouse effect
- global warming
- seasons
- daily temperature cycle
- heat content differences between land and ocean
- latent heat
- saturation; saturation vapor pressure; wet bulb temperature; relative humidity
Gas law and first law of thermodynamics
- P V = n R T
- why isobaric heights are higher in the tropics than polar regions
- first law of thermodynamics
- work and volume change for an ideal gas
- adiabatic conditions
- dry adiabatic lapse rate (DALR)
- saturated adiabatic lapse rate (SALR)
- air parcels
- lifting and lowering air parcels
- atmospheric stability
- stable
- unstable
- neutral
- conditional
Clouds and precipitation
cloud classification
- precipitation in warm clouds (collision--coalescence)
- precipitation in cold clouds (Bergern process; accretion; aggregation)
- weather modification (cloud seeding)
- optical phenomena (rainbows, halos, coronas)
Forces and wind
- Newton's laws
- atmospheric forces: pressure gradient, friction, Coriolis
- force balances and accelerations
- Geostrophic wind
- Gradient wind
- effects of friction near the surface
- local winds (sea breezes and mountain--valley circulations)
Global wind systems
- jet streams
- dominant surface pressure patterns (subtropical highs; subpolar lows)
- seasonality and continentality
- Hadley cells
- Walker cells
- El Nino
Midlatitude cyclones and fronts
- warm, cold, stationary, and occluded fronts
- midlatitude cyclone life cycle
- relationship between surface low pressure and upper-level features
- why air rises between trough and ridge
Thunderstorms and severe weather
- Air mass thunderstorms
- updrafts and downdrafts; outflow
- organized severe thunderstorms: supercells
- source of rotation
- storm structure
- tornadoes
- geographical factors for why "tornado alley" is where it is.
Hurricanes
- geographical distribution of storms
- storm structure
- storm life cycle
Weather and Climate of the Pacific Northwest
- mountains and land-sea contrast control weather and climat in WA
- wet on windward slopes; dry on leeward side
- Puget Sound convergence zone
- Western Washington wind storms
- Puget Sound lowland snowstorms
El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
- Warm water in tropical western Pacific; cold water east (upwelling)
- Walker circulation is like an east-west Hadley cell over Pacific Ocean
- Weakening tropical surface easterly winds: El Nino (warm water central Pacific)
- Strengthening tropical surface easterly winds: La Nina (cold water central Pacific)