| A | B |
|---|
| Define evaporation | water absorbs heat energy from the sun. This heat causes molecules of water to evaporate and pass into the air. |
| What is sublimation? | the process by which a solid changes directly to a vapor. When the air is dry and the temperature is below freezing, ice and snow may sublimate into water vapor. |
| What is humidity? | the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. |
| What is relative humidity? | A ratio that compares the mass of water vapor in the air with the mass of water vapor that the air can hold at its saturation point. |
| What happens when the air temperature reaches the dew point temperature | Warm air comes in contact with the cold surface of the earth and condenses (forms dew) |
| How are clouds formed? | When the air is saturated, water molecules become attached to suspended particles of ice, salt, dust in the troposphere. As molecules collect, condense, water droplets are formed. |
| The three major forms of clouds | Stratus, Cumulus, and Cirrus |
| Describe a stratus cloud | The most extensive (covers a large area) clouds in the sky; "sheetlike" or "layered"; they are low and may almost touch the earth; produce very little rain. |
| Describe a cumulus cloud | puffy,vertical-growing clouds; "piled" or "heaped"; they are thick and have high billowy tops. |
| Describe cirrus clouds | the highest clouds in the sky; "wispy" and "feathery" |
| the major difference between fog and clouds | altitude |
| What causes adiabatic temperature changes? | the expansion or compression of air |
| What is coalescence? | When large cloud droplets drift downward and collide and combine with smaller droplets. |
| What is hail? | lumps of ice that usually form in cumulonimbus clouds. |
| What is glaze ice? | rain that freezes when it strikes a surface near the ground. |
| How are raindrops defined? | liquid precipitation between 0.5mm and 5mm in diameter |
| What is drizzle? | raindrops smaller than 0.5mm in diameter |
| What is the most common form of solid precipitation? | Snow |
| What is cloudseeding? | the method used to cause or increase precipitation |
| What is rain? | liquid precipitation |
| What is a raingauge? | the instrument used to measure the amount of rainfall |
| What is sleet? | forms when rain falls through a layer of freezing air (clear ice pellets) |
| Why would polluted air more likely form clouds than clean air? | there are more particles for water molecules to collect on |
