| A | B |
|---|
| anemometer | tool used to measure wind speed |
| cumulus clouds | fair weather clouds that may develop into thunderstorms |
| local winds | winds that cover short distances and blow in any direction |
| global winds | winds that blow from a specific direction and cover larger distances |
| stratus | clouds that are smooth, flat, and gray; drizzle |
| cirrus | clouds that are wispy and thin; fair weather (but they ofter indicate that rain or snow may fall in several hours) |
| nimbo | prefix for cloud words meaning rain |
| precipitation | water that falls from the atmosphere to the Earth as rain, sleet, snow, or hail |
| psychrometer | instrument used to measure relative humidity |
| thermometer | instrument used to measure temperature |
| barometer | instrument used to measure air pressure |
| air pressure | measure of the force air pressing down on the Earth's surface |
| sea breeze | a wind from the sea that develops over land near coasts. |
| land breeze | wind blowing from land to sea (an offshore wind) which develops in coastal districts towards nightfall. Pressure is relatively higher above the land than above the sea as the land cools more rapidly in the evening, and air therefore moves seawards in order to even up the pressure difference |
| doldrums | a low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing winds are calm |
| Coriolis effect | Earth's rotation causes shift in the path of any object floating above it |
| Horse latitudes | subtropic latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south |
| Equator | it is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface approximately equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole that divides the Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. |
| trade winds | are the prevailing pattern of easterly winds found in the tropics near the Earth's equator. The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere.30 degrees north and south of the equator |
| westerlies | strong steady winds blowing from the high pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the poles |
| Troposphere | lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere. It contains approximately 75% of the atmosphere's mass and almost all of its water vapor and aerosols. |
| Stratosphere | just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. It is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down |
| Mesosphere | temperature decreases with increasing altitude due to decreasing solar heating and increasing cooling by CO2 radioative emission |
| Ozone layer | ozone within stratosphere; created by ultraviolet light striking oxygen molecules containing two oxygen atoms (O2), splitting them into individual oxygen atoms (atomic oxygen) |
| Thermosphere | layer of the earth's atmosphere directly above the mesosphere and directly below the exosphere. Within this layer, ultraviolet radiation causes ionization. |
| convection | refers to the movement of warm molecules of a fluid rising while colder molecules sink |
| radiation | travels through a vaccuum; the way heat reaches the Earth from the sun |
| conduction | the passsage of heat from particle to particle |
