1. Atmosphere
Water and Air… the two essential elements on which life depends have become global garbage cans

2. Essential Standards
EEn.2.5 Understand the structure of and processes within our atmosphere.
EEn Summarize the structure and composition of our atmosphere.
EEn Explain the formation of typical air masses and the weather systems that result from air mass interactions.
EEn Explain how cyclonic storms form based on the interaction of air masses.
EEn Predict the weather using available weather maps and data (including surface, upper atmospheric winds, and satellite
imagery).
EEn Explain how human activities affect air quality.
EEn.2.6 Analyze patterns of global climate change over time.
EEn Differentiate between weather and climate.
EEn Explain changes in global climate due to natural processes.
EEn Analyze the impacts that human activities have on global climate change (such as burning hydrocarbons, greenhouse effect,
and deforestation).
EEn Attribute changes to Earth’s systems to global climate change (temperature change, changes in pH of ocean, sea level
changes, etc.).

3. Atmospheric composition
Structure and processes

4. Assignment!
Create a chart for the next 2 weeks (Dec 20th will be the last day)
Each day we will observe the cloud types during your class
We will record the cloud types along with the weather each day
If the weather changes during the day – it is your responsibility to change / add to the weather for that day
You will write a brief conclusion at the end stating if you see a difference in the weather depending on the cloud type

5. Brief Review What was the composition of the original atmosphere like?
What evolved on Earth that drastically changed the composition?
How did these organisms change the composition of Earth’s atmosphere?
Mostly methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia. Deadly to living organisms today
Plants
Drastically increased the oxygen content

6. What is the structure of the atmosphere?
4 layers from bottom to top
last layer sometimes divided in half to make 5
Troposphere – lowest layer, weather happens here
Stratosphere – next layer up, jets fly here, ozone found here
Mesosphere – meteors burn up here
Thermosphere – hottest layer, space stations here
Ionosphere – where auroras take place
Exosphere – outer layer, space stations

7. How are layers divided? According to temperature trends
Each layer is separated by a pause
Tropopause between troposphere and stratosphere etc
What happens to the temperature in each layer of the atmosphere?
Troposphere – temp decreases
Stratosphere – temp increases
Mesosphere – temp decreases
Thermosphere – temp increases

8. What is the atmosphere made of?
Mostly nitrogen (N) – about 78%
Oxygen (O) – about 21%
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – about .03%

9. Remember radiant energy?
Comes from the sun
In many forms
Represented by the electromagnetic spectrum!
When it comes in contact with the ionosphere it can often create light shows called _________________.
auroras

11. Assignment! Draw the atmosphere on your own! You will need:
Large paper
Colored pencils
To label each layer
Draw an arrow at the bottom pointing to the right and label it temperature
Draw an arrow to the left side pointing up and label it altitude
Add ground
Label each layer of the atmosphere (place the ozone layer where it goes in green)
Draw a continuous line up your paper through each layer to indicate how the temperature changes with elevation
Add in a picture in each layer to indicate what is special about it
Turn in

12. Assignment!
Layers of the atmosphere worksheet
Turn in when finished

13. How does air move? In large pockets called air masses
Air masses move based on pressure
High pressure systems move toward low pressure systems (high  low)

14. How do air masses affect weather?
They pick up the characteristics of the area in which they form
They are very large (up to 1600km) making weather fairly consistent
They carry temperature and moisture over the area where they are moving

15. How are air masses classified?
Overall temperature
Where they formed
4 major types
Polar –cold temps
Tropical –warm temps
Continental –dry air
Maritime – wet air (high water vapor content)
Arctic – very cold and dry
Type of air mass will consist of 2 words

16. What kind of air masses influence North American weather?
Mostly influenced by maritime tropical (mT) and continental polar (cP)
air masses

17. What are continental polar air masses like?
Cold dry winters
Cool dry summers
Not associated with precipitation
Subject to the “lake effect” when crossing the Great Lakes
Pick up moisture from the Great Lakes and may bring some precipitation

18. What are maritime tropical air masses like?
Warm and loaded with moisture
Usually unstable
Source of most precipitation in the Eastern US

19. What are maritime polar air masses like?
Come from the North Pacific
Cold and dry turns into mild and humid
Unstable
Accompanied by low clouds and showers – snow in mountains

20. What are continental tropical air masses like?
Least influence in North America
Hot and dry
Only occasionally affect weather outside their source region

21. How do air masses move again?
Air pressure
Exerted in all directions
Object pushes back on the air with exactly the same force
Measured using a barometer
Typical air pressure:
1 atmosphere (ATM)
760 mm Hg (mercury)
980 millibars
weather and air pressure

22. How does pressure affect air masses?
Air masses move from ____________  ____________ pressure
Causes wind
Unequal heating of Earth creates pressure differentials
How does land heat up compared to water?
Solar radiation is the ultimate source of wind
3 factors
Pressure
Coriolis effect
friction
high
low

23. Assignment! Build a barometer You will need
A beaker
A balloon
A rubber band
A sheet of notebook paper
A pencil
We’ll check your barometer daily and compare it to actual barometric pressure

24. Fronts
Come back to back

25. How can we tell where air masses are going?
Look for pressure
Red H is high pressure
Blue L is low pressure
Sometimes pressure is shown on maps in isobars, similar to isotherms
Iso means equal
Isobars are lines showing equal pressure

26. Changes in air pressure
High Pressure
Low Pressure
Type of phenomenon
Weather system
Determined by…
Changes in air pressure
Moving inward on isobars…
Pressure Increases
Pressure Decreases
Density of air
Higher
Lower
Representation on a map
H (typically blue)
L (typically red)
Motion of air
Clockwise, air sinks
Counterclockwise, air rises
Also known as…
Anticyclone
Cyclone
Motion of air causes a zone of…
Divergence
Convergence
Stability of atmosphere
Stable
Unstable

27. What is weather like in a high pressure system?
Sunny
Clear
Dry
High day and low night temperatures
Calm
Dew and frost
Fog and mist
Stable sinking air

28. What is weather like in a low pressure system?
Cloudy
Little sun
Wet
Mild temperatures for the time of year
Windy
Changeable weather
Unstable rising air

29. What is the difference in a cyclone and an anticyclone?
Anticyclones
Cyclones
High pressure
Air pushes together and sinks
Spin
Clockwise in northern hemisphere
Counterclockwise in southern
Low pressure
Air rises and separates
Spin
Counterclockwise in northern
Clockwise in southern

30. A C D B D

31. What is a front? The area where 2 air masses meet 4 kinds of fronts
Warm front
Cold front
Stationary front
Occluded front
Each front has a symbol
Side of the line the symbols are on indicate direction of movement

33. What does each front mean?
Warm front – warm air is replacing cold air
Cold front – cold air is replacing warm air
Stationary front – air masses are not moving due to similar pressures
Occluded front – warm air is pushed up due to cold air moving in from both directions
front animation

34. What happens when cold and warm air meet?
Cold air sinks and warm air rises
Warm air carries moisture
Moisture condenses
Clouds form
Once air is saturated with moisture, precipitation in some form occurs

35. What happens before and after a warm front?
Cool or cold temps
Falling barometer
Increasing, thickening clouds
Light to moderate precipitation
Temp and dew point get closer together
Warm and more humid
Clearing clouds
Rising barometer
Temp and dew point are close

38. What is dewpoint?
The temperature at which air is saturated enough for water to condense
High dewpoint – temperature and dewpoint are close together
Low dewpoint – temperature and dewpoint are far apart
ALWAYS a dewpoint

39. What happens before and after cold fronts?
Warm
Falling barometer
Increasing clouds
Short period of precipitation
Temp and dew point close together
Lower temps
Rising pressure
Showers then clearing skies
Temp and dewpoint get further apart

42. What to expect from a stationary front?
Changing winds and temperatures when crossing from one side of the front to the other
Similar pressure in air masses keeps them from moving

43. What can you expect from an occluded front?
Developing cyclones usually have a warm front and a faster moving cold front to wrap around them
Occluded fronts form when cold air catches up to a warm front that is trapped behind a cold front already in place
Change in temp, dewpoint, or wind possible
jet stream

44. Assignment! Predicting weather Edheads weather prediction
We’ll do this as a group

45. Assignment! Complete the forecasting weather map worksheet
Put in the box when you are finished

46. Clouds
How they form and what they mean

47. What happens as water evaporates?
Humidity – the amount of water in the air
Amount of water vapor increases = higher humidity
Air pressure increases as amount of water vapor increases
Air is saturated when water entering air = water returning to surface
Warm air contains more vapor than cold air

48. How is humidity measured?
Using a hygrometer
Relative humidity – ratio of actual amount of water in the air compared to the amount of water air can hold at that temperature and pressure
If amount of water vapor is constant, what will happen to the humidity if you raise the temperature? Lower it?

50. So how do clouds form?
Temperature can change without heat input or loss
These changes are called adiabatic temperature changes
Happens when air is compressed or expanded
Expansion cools
Compression warms

51. What happens to air and vapor as it rises?
Overall, air resists lifting
4 factors make air light enough to be lifted
Oographic lifting
Frontal wedging
Convergence
Localized convective lifting

52. What is oographic lifting?
Elevated terrain blocks air from moving forcing it to go up and over
Causes the rainshadow effect
Wettest places on the windward side of mountain
Lifting air reaches dew point and condenses  clouds form  air is pushed higher and forced to release moisture as precipitation
By the time air gets to the other side of the mountain the moisture has mostly been lost

54. What is frontal wedging?
Air masses collide in flatter areas
Area between two air masses is a front
Cooler air sinks and warmer air rises  condenses  forms clouds

55. Brief Review What is a front?
What are the 4 different types of fronts?
Draw each front as it appears on a weather map.
How does weather change as each front moves through?

56. What is convergence?
Air in lower atmosphere collides together and is forced upward
Air converging from 2 different directions must go somewhere, down is not an option
Example
Ocean winds blow toward the shore
In Florida, this happens on both sides of the state so air flows together
Produces many afternoon storms

57. What is localized convective lifting?
Due to unequal heating of Earth’s surface
Causes pockets of air to be warmer than surrounding air
Example: parking lots
Warm air will rise creating thermals
Birds and hang-gliders use these to glide higher with less energy
Warm air rises  reaches dewpoint  clouds form

58. Assignment! Answer questions 1-7 on page 516 in your textbook
Use the chapter and your note sheets to help you answer the questions
Turn in when you are finished

59. What is the difference in stable and unstable air?
Air is forced to rise and its temperature is lowered by expansion
Cooler air sinks to its original position – stable
If it does not sink to its original position – unstable
Bad weather
stable vs. unstable air

60. What’s the difference in stable and unstable air rising?
Stable air resists vertical movement but some factors force it to rise
What are the 4 things that can make air rise?
When stable air rises – clouds are widespread and thin
Unstable air rising – clouds are thick and cover a small area
thunderstorms

61. What makes air density different?
Temperature
Warm – rises
Like hot air balloons
Cool – sinks
Elevation
High – air is less dense
Particles far apart
Low – air is more dense
Particles close together

62. How does water condense to make clouds?
Usually a surface for cooling water to condense on
Bacteria
Small particles – dust, soot, particles of pollution
Small surfaces are called condensation nuclei

63. Assignment! Hurricane sheet
Read through the packet and answer the questions
Honor’s - choose 1 of the following
write a realistic fictional story about a hurricane or tornado
Create a tri-fold brochure on hurricane safety
Use graph paper to create a bar graph showing the 20 strongest hurricanes on record

64. Cloud types

65. How are clouds categorized?
Based on height and form
3 main types
Stratus
Cumulus
Cirrus

66. What are cirrus clouds? High, white, and thin
Patches or wispy fibers – may appear feathery
3 types
Cirrus
Cirrostratus – flat layers
Cirrocumulus – fluffy masses
Usually signify nice weather
When replaced by cirrocumulus clouds and increased coverage – sign of bad weather approaching

67. What are cumulus clouds?
Piles of clouds
Rounded cloud masses
Normally with flat base in domes or towers
middle clouds
2 other types of middle clouds
Alto – prefix meaning middle
Altocumulus – rounded masses that are larger and more dense than cirrocumulus
Altonimbus – uniform white – greyish sheet, sun or moon visible as a bright spot
Often snow or rain accompany these

68. What are stratus clouds?
Low clouds
Sheets or layers
No distinctive cloud masses
2 other types of low clouds
Stratocumulus – long parallel with a rolling bottom
Nimbostratus – main precipitation markers form in stable conditions

69. Are there any clouds that reach through several cloud layers?
Low bottoms with tops that reach into the high regions
From unstable air
Cumulonimbus
Usually grown from cumulus clouds and signify storms

70. Do clouds ever touch the ground?
Fog is a cloud with its base on or near the ground
No physical difference with any other cloud
Difference is in placement and formation
Usually the result of warm air moving over a cooled surface
Can form when cool air moves over warm water – steamy appearance
Forms when enough water vapor brings about saturation

71. How does precipitation form in cold clouds?
Supercooling and supersaturation – Bergeron process
Cloud droplets do not freeze at 0°C, instead it must be about -40°C - supercooled
Freezing nuclei cause water droplets to freeze
Greater than 100% humidity – supersaturated
Ice and water cannot exist together in clouds
Evaporating water quickly produces snowflakes or ice

72. How does precipitation form in warm clouds?
Rainfall in clouds is well below freezing – even in tropics
Collision – coalescence process – water absorbing particles remove moisture forming large droplets
Drops collide and mix with smaller slower droplets

73. Does ice form in warm clouds?
Hail
Forms in cumulonimbus clouds
Starts small
Updrafts carry hail through supercooled layers repeatedly
Forms layers

74. Assignment! Cloud types and formation worksheet
Turn in when you finish

75. Climate and Climate Change
Something wicked this way comes...

76. Group Assignment! Each group will be assigned 2 topics Create a poster
1 natural source of climate change
1 human induced source of climate change
Create a poster
Tell what each source is
What do they do to cause climate change
3 ways to counteract the effects of natural climate change
3 ways to reduce impact from the human induced problems
What additional problems does this cause for the biosphere (at least 2)
Due the day before test day (Dec 19)

77. What is the difference in climate and weather?
State of the atmosphere at a given time
What atmospheric layer does this happen in?
Climate
Average weather patterns over a LONG period of time

78. How is climate classified?
Köppen classification
3 major climate systems
Temperate
Tropical
polar

79. What is a temperate climate?
Moderate changes between seasons
Distinct summers and winters
Between 20 and 65 degrees north and south of the equator

80. What is a tropical climate?
Constant warm temperatures with high precipitation
Around the equator between 0 and 25 degrees

81. What is a polar climate? Constant cold temperatures
24 hours of daylight in summer and 24 hours of dark in winter
Treeless tundras or glaciers

82. How are humans causing climate change?
Burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees increases gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia in the atmosphere
These gases act as a blanket and retain radiation from the sun in the form of heat – the greenhouse effect
Gases responsible for this effect are greenhouse gases
Some CO2 is necessary to keep Earth warm enough for life
greenhouse effect - Futurama

83. Isn’t CO2 absorbed by the ocean?
Yes by diffusion
Some of this carbon reacts with water to form weak carbonic acid
Makes the shells of marine creatures thinner
Increases vulnerability
Decreases our food source
How will increased CO2 affect sea level?

84. Are there natural phenomena that cause climate change?
Yes
Sunspots
Volcanic activity
El Niño and La Niña
Shifts in orbit
Naturally fluctuating CO2 levels

85. How do sunspots cause climate change?
Controversial
Sunspots are dark spots on the surface of the sun
Increase in sunspots correlates to an increase in temperature and vise versa
Spots are cooler spots in the sun and area around them warms to make up for the difference
Less spots = more solar wind = more clouds = less sun hitting Earth

86. How do volcanic eruptions cause climate change?
Massive amounts of gas, ash, and aerosol released into the atmosphere
Ash falls rapidly
Gas stays in the upper atmosphere
Sulfer dioxide reflects light back into space – causes cooling
CO2 causes warming – greenhouse effect

87. How do El Niño and La Niña influence climate change?
What are trade winds like in a typical year on the western coast of continents?
What do these winds do to warm water?
Temporary change in Pacific Ocean around the equator
Affects Northern hemisphere’s winter
Area of typical thunderstorms moves eastward
Due to a reduction of upwelling in the eastern ocean

88. What about La Niña? Opposite of El Niño
Caused by cooler surface temperatures

89. What are the results of El Niño?
Wet winters in southeast US
Droughts in Indonesia and Australia
Weaker winds to further reduce upwelling and cause El Niño to grow – positive feedback
Irregular but generally happen every 3-7 years

90. How does a shift in Earth’s orbit produce climate change?
What is precession? How does it affect climate?
What is nutation? How does it affect climate?
Eccentricity – distance between Earth and Sun
Varies slightly as the barycenter of the sun changes position
Long term effects – triggers beginnings and ends of ice ages

91. How does CO2 fluctuation change climate?
Higher levels of CO2 contribute to the greenhouse effect
Higher levels = higher temperatures
Natural as well as human influenced
Volcanoes and burning fossil fuels
Seasonal – higher levels in the winter… why?

92. Do gases do anything else to affect climate?
Some dissolve easily in water to make acid rain
Nitrogen oxide
Sulfur dioxide
Can be carried far by winds and affect areas far away from where it developed

93. Are there any other human affects on our atmosphere?
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) – only created by humans, found in old aerosol cans (hairspray etc…)
Destroy ozone
1 CFC can destroy thousands of ozone particles
No longer used or made in America
Created a large hole in ozone over Antarctica – conditions here have begun to improve

94. What are aerosols and what do they do?
Small particles suspended in the atmosphere
In high amounts they can scatter sunlight and prevent it from reaching Earth
Common in any aerosol can (hair spray, cool whip, can cheese etc…)
Also natural – volcanoes, meteors

95. How is climate change affecting the biosphere?
If the climate warms faster than organisms can adapt to it they will become extinct
Mass extinction if we lose many species within a few centuries
Ecosystems will lose balance as organisms die
Insects are able to migrate to higher elevations – mosquitos
Agriculture will become difficult as weather warms and rains decrease

96. What can you do to stop climate change?
Decrease dependence on fossil fuels
Walk or ride a bike
Eat seasonal or locally grown produce
Eat less meat
Be energy efficient – turn off lights/water
Choose renewable power
Recycle – reduce – reuse
Travel less
Stay informed
Stay involved
Support and donate to politicians who are in favor for environmental regulations

97. Game board review
Create a game board using each topic in the game board
You will need at least 4 game pieces to play
Incorporate spaces that will send you ahead or back in the game
Example, land on a volcanic eruption and go back 5 spaces – land on wind turbines and go forward 5 spaces
Lose a turn spaces – only get off if you answer a question etc…
Question cards
To be answered before you can move ahead in the game – give each card a number of spaces to go forward if answered correctly

98. Resources http://www.vtaide.com/png/atmosphere.htm

99. Resources

100. Resources http://www.weather-climate.org.uk/13.php