Review Summary for Semester Examination #2

REVIEW SESSION FOR EXAM #2

There will be 2 review sessions Monday March 2. The first will be from 6:30 - 8:00 PM in Room 307 Love. The second will be from 8:00 - 10:00 PM in Room 101 Love. You may attend either or both review sessions. As was the case with the last review session, I will not be answering questions about what is on the test, however, I will be answering any questions pertainig to the subject material.

The exam is Wednesday March 4 from 12:20 PM - 1:10 PM. Do not be late!

Here are a few pieces of advice / hints regarding Exam #2:

• The exam is the same format as Exam #1 - 25 multiple choice questions and an essay. There are 5 essay choices for you to choose from.
• When choosing an essay, choose the one you feel you can score the most point on. It may not be the one you are most interested in, but it should be the one you feel you know the best.
• This exam is more challenging than Exam #1 and builds upon material covered in Exam #1. Although the emphasis is on material we have covered since Exam #1, you would be wise to review your notes from lectures from prior to Exam #1.
• There are some multiple choice questions that are easier than others. Answer the easiest ones first and don't get stuck for too long on the harder ones. Finish what you can and then come back to the ones you are less sure of at the end.
• I graded the essay in Exam #1 very leniently. I will be grading this essay for Exam #2 as a college level essay. I want to see better, clearer writing, a more fluent thought process, better use of language, and more explanation with the aid o f diagrams and/or illustrations. This is not an English class, however, how well or how poorly you communicate will either help or hurt your score on the essay.
• Expect more thought questions on this exam. You will likely rely more heavily on your understanding of the concepts we have covered than on your memory. There are, however, questions that are similar to definition type questions which should basical ly be freebies.
• There is some light mathematics on this exam. Bring a simple calculator. Students using scientific calculators will be asked to clear their memories prior to the exam. Keep this in mind if you have material in your calculator from another class.
• Draw sketches - even on the multiple choice questions. This may help you better visualize the situation being described.

For your convenience, I will provide the following as a checklist of some of the more important concepts we have covered since Exam #1.

• When determining the magnitude of vertical motions that will occur in the atmosphere, one can tell a lot from the stability conditions. Stability is determined by the lapse rate of temperature which is how the temperature is changing with elev ation in the atmosphere.
• Weather balloons are used to investigate how temperature and dewpoint are changing with elevation in the atmosphere. Also called radiosondes, weather balloons take measurements at different levels in the atmosphere. The information they retri eve is plotted on Skew-T diagrams also called soundings.
• We discussed Skew-T diagrams at length and you should be familiar with the basics involved with reading and deciphering them.
• We spent more time talking about different types of precipitation. You should be familiar with the mechanisms of rain, snow, sleet, and freezing rain formation.
• Radar plays a very important role in weather monitoring and forecasting.
• The Doppler Weather Radar not only can detect precipitation, but it can also determine its direction and speed of movement. In addition, it's very important in the prediction of tornadoes.
• The rate of rainfall can be determined by studying the strength of the signal that is returned by an area of precipitation to a radar.
• We have spent a significant amount of time since the last exam discussing different aspects of the wind. Be sure you fully understand the wind classification schemes we discussed and also the many different instruments used to track and monitor the w ind.
• We learned that as the wind speed increases, its ability for destruction increases rapidly. This is because the force of the wind is a function of density as well as the velocity of the wind squared.
• Isopleths are lines connecting points of equal values. For instance, two types of isopleths we studied at length are isotherms and isobars. Isotherms connect points of equal temperature and isobars connect points of equal atmospheric p ressure.
• By just performing a simple isobar and isotherm analysis over a region, one can get a good idea as to the behavior of the wind, temperature advection that is occurring in the region, the location of frontal systems, and the location of high and low pr essure systems.
• Station models are a convenient way of symbolically showing the weather conditions at a given weather station. Make sure you fully understand station model plots.
• You may wish to spend some time reviewing how to identify areas of warm and cold advection using a pressure-temperature analysis map.
• Snow and rain basically form in much the same manner. Water vapor condenses (or deposits in the case of onto cloud nuclei). However, the behavior of the nuclei is much different. There are two distinct types of ice crystals: plates and r ods.
• When the rate at which temperature is decreasing with elevation (the lapse rate) is equal to the Dry Adiabtic Lapse Rate, the atmosphere is neutral. When the lapse rate is less than the Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate, the atmosphere is stable . When the lapse rate is more than the Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate, the atmosphere is unstable. Know what implications stability has on vertical motion.
• Density in the atmosphere will tend to decrease with increasing elevation. When determining stability conditions and the lapse rate, it is how the pressure is decreasing with elevation versus how the temperature is decreasing (or increasing) with ele vation that determines the lapse rate, and thus the stability.
• Objects that move in a circular or curved path are subjected to centrifugal forces. The Coriolis Force is the force that objects or fluid parcels moving on the Earth's surface are subjected to due to the forces generated by the Earth's rotation.
• The Coriolis Force in the northern hemisphere will act to the right of the direction of motion of a moving object or fluid parcel.
• An angular velocity is the angular distance a rotating object moves in a given time interval. The Earth's rotates at an angular velocity of 360 degrees / day. In radians / second, that speed is 7.29 * 10^-5 radians / second. There are 2 * pi radians in 360 degrees.
• The magnitude of the Coriolis Force acting on a fluid parcel can be estimated using the equation 2 * Omega * sine latitude * velocity, where Omega is the angular velocity of the rotating object (Earth, etc.).
• In mid-latitudes on synoptic scales, it is acceptable to consider the pressure gradient force equal in magnitude to the Coriolis Force. Review this principle and be familiar with the terms used.
• The geostrophic wind will blow somewhat parallel to the isobars with high pressure on the right of the direction of flow.
• Consider a parcel in a fluid at rest. The pressure above it is lower and the pressure below it is higher. Therefore, there is a pressure gradient force acting upward. There is also a gravitational force acting downward. The balance of these two fo rces should be investigated.
• Be familiar with how to express the wind in vector form, referring to it with a speed and an angular direction.
• Radiosonde information can be used to perform a very useful calculation using a very important equation we discussed that lets you determine the vertical distance between two pressure levels in the atmosphere. Be familiar with this equation.
• The distance between two pressure levels is the thickness. A reference thickness is often the 1000-500 mb thickness.
• The Gas Constant, R and the gravitational constant, g have values of 287 and 9.81 respectively when used with units of meters, kilograms, seconds, and degrees Kelvin.
• The gravitational constant, g, refers to the magnitude at which Earth will accelerate freely falling objects neglecting air resistance.
• Meteorologists often use pressure to express elevation in the atmosphere as opposed to vertical distance. Pressure decreases with elevation at approximately the same rate across the Earth.
• To compare barometric pressure more evenly between two stations at different elevations, meteorologists convert barometer readings to Sea Level Pressure. This is what the barometer would read if the station could somehow be taken to an elevation of s ea level.
• Surface convergence will lead to divergence aloft while convergence aloft will lead to surface divergence.
• A vector is a mathematical means of expressing a quantity's magnitude and direction.
• Be familiar with the equation that is used to describe the rate at which pressure decreases with elevation in the atmosphere.
• A change in wind speed or wind direction over a distance is wind shear. There can be directional shear or speed shear.
• Shear can generate vorticity which is a measure of the atmosphere's rotation at a given point.
• A pilot weather balloon is used to determine the existence of vertical wind shear.
• Be familiar with the different types of localized winds we discussed in lecture on February 27.
• The merging of 2 Sea Breeze Fronts over Central Florida has helped the Orlando area gain the reputation of being the Lightning Capital of the United States.
• Conservation of Angular Momentum is the concept that can be used to understand how changes in vorticity can lead to vertical motion - upward or downward.
• Estimating location of an isopleth is accomplished using a process called interpolation.
• Localized lifting due to mountainous or hilly terrain is referred to as orographic lifting.
• I recommend you consult a US map to familiarize yourself with the location of the 50 states before the exam.

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