Chapter 17

Which statement most accurately reflects the relationship between dew-point temperature and moisture in Earth's atmosphere?

At sea level pressure, which best expresses the relationship between temperature and saturation mixing ratio?

What condition is required for cloud formation in the atmosphere?

When a parcel of air moves upward in the atmosphere, what is the result?

Adiabatic temperature changes result from which of the following conditions in the atmosphere?

What is the most precise cause for the adiabatic cooling of a rising parcel of air in the atmosphere?

Which mechanism causing air masses to ascend is significant in the creation of midlatitude hurricanes and cyclones?

In the winter, when warm, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico moves northwestward, cities like Denver that are situated along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains tend to get prodigious amounts of snow. What is the cause of these storms?

In the Pacific Northwest, western Washington state receives enough annual precipitation to be classified as rain forest, while eastern Washington is extremely dry. How do such extreme condition exist in the same state?

Which factor is most significant in the formation of clouds in the atmosphere?

Contrails produced by jet aircraft engines are most similar to which cloud type?

Ligtning, thunder, hail, and occasionally tornadoes are associated with which cloud type?

Which situation produces the flat base of cumulus clouds?

At which altitude would you expect to observe the formation of cirrostratus clouds?

While you are watching the television weather report to prepare for your geology field trip tomorrow afternoon, the weather reporter predicts the development of nimbostratus clouds. What equipment should you bring in addition to your hand lens and hammer?

Which type of fog is produced when air is lifted over a topographic barrier?

Which type of fog is produced when you breathe out on a cold winter morning and you can "see your breath"?

Which fog types are produced by evaporation rather than cooling?

In the middle latitudes during the summer, cirrus clouds are composed of which form of water?

In which cloud type might you expect to find a co-existing mixture of ice crystals and supercooled water?

In which cloud type could you observe the activity of both the Bergeron process and the collision-coalescence process on a summer day in the middle latitudes?

Precipitation in the middle latitudes can be induced by the Bergeron process year round, as long as which condition exists in the atmosphere?

On a winter morning you wake to find the trees, sidewalks, roads, and cars in your neighborhood covered with layer of ice. Since the possibility of snow was forecast, what was the cause of the ice glaze?

To be classified as rain, water droplets that fall from a cloud must be of what minimum diameter?

Most rainfall originates in which types of clouds?

Dendrites, needles, ands sector plates are representative of which type of precipitation?

In addition to poor visibility and heavy snowfall, blizzard conditions are characterized by which additional parameter?

Delicate frostlike accumulations of ice form as supercooled cloud or fog droplets encounter objects and freeze on contact. What do we call this type of precipitation?

In cross section, concentric layering can be observed in hailstones. How does this type of layering develop?

In analyzing the layers in a hailstone, you find that some layers are milky white and others are clear. What is the explanation for the color variation in the layers?

An air mass moving across a landscape encounters a mountain and is forced up the mountain slope. What happens to the temperature of the air mass as it rises and why?

Which process results in the dry conditions found in the Great Basin of the western U.S.?

Which of the following is an example of condensation nuclei?

Condensation nuclei, tiny particles of matter in the air, are important because __________.

Which type of fog is characterized by cool air moving over warm water, allowing evaporated water from the water surface to cool and condense?

In the cold cloud conditions necessary for the Bergeron Process to work, what makes up the majority of condensation nuclei?

Which form of precipitation starts to fall as a liquid but freezes into ice pellets before hitting the ground?

The latent heat of vaporization has the effect of cooling a liquid because __________.

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the process of sublimation?