University Of Arizona

ATMO 170A

ATMO QUIZ 1

1)Which of the following properties always decreases with increasing altitude in the earth's atmosphere?

 

2. Which layer of the atmosphere contains most of the atmosphere's ozone?

 

3. The station plot gives conditions at Tucson International Airport for Friday, 30 January 2015, 8:00 pm MST. Which of the following set of observations is correct?

 

4. The station plot gives conditions at Tucson International Airport for Friday, 30 January 2015, 8:00 pm MST. What was the weather?

 

5. Which of the following is a climate statistic?

 

6. Air molecules at room temperature have an average speed close to

 

7. Which phase change of water releases the greatest amount of energy to the surrounding air?

 

8. Which heat transport mechanism would cause an poker in a fireplace to get too hot to hold by its handle?

 

9. Visible light lies within which band of wavelengths?

 

10. The setting sun looks deep orange and not white because of the__________________ of

electromagnetic waves associated with the color blue.

 

11. The above figure shows the total absorption spectrum for the earth's atmosphere. Which pair of gases is responsible for the absorption of most radiation with wavelengths less than 0.3 microns?

 

12. Which mechanism accounts for the vast majority of the heat that is absorbed by the atmosphere?

 

13. What percentage of incoming solar radiation is reflected back to space by just clouds?

 

14. Why does the coldest day of the year typically occur about one month after the winter solstice?

 

15. Which of the following sources of aerosols could be only due to an anthropogenic activities?

 

16. At 700 mb (Mt. Wrightson, highest peak in the Santa Rita Mountains), approximately what percentage of the total mass of the atmosphere lies above you and below you?

 

17. Latent heating works with which mechanism to transport heat horizontally from the warm tropics to the cold poles?

 

18. The region with the greatest difference between summer and winter average temperatures would be

 

19. Compared to land, water bodies

 

20. The above graph shows the net downward solar radiation and net upward infrared radiation for a site in Mississippi over a 24 hour period. Units are Watts m^-2. Assuming radiation is the only process acting to change the temperature, at what time UTC (bottom x-axis) would you expect the temperature to begin to warm then begin to cool?

 

21. The earth is 5 million km closer to the sun in January than July.

 

 

22. Tucson experiences less than 10 hours of sunlight on the first day of February.

 

 

23. CO₂ is the most abundant, naturally-occuring greenhouse gas in the earth's atmosphere.

 

 

24. A southerly wind means the wind is blowing toward the south

 

 

25. A southerly wind means the wind is blowing toward the south

 

 

26. All other factors being equal, windy and cloudy climates would tend to have warmer minimum temperatures than dry, windless locations.

 

 

27. If the amount of radiation that the object emits doubles, the temperature of the object (in Kelvin) would double too.

 

 

28. A so-called "red" star emits radiation at a warmer temperature than a "blue" star.

 

 

29. The air absorbs most of its energy from the ground, but the groun absorbs most of its energy from the sun.

 

 

30. The greenhouse effect exists because clouds act a ceiling that prevents convective currents from penetrating into space

 

 

31. The noon sun is never directly over Miami (26°N) any time of the year.

 

 

32. Specific heat is defined to be the amount energy it takes to warm 1 gram of the mass 1°C.

 

 

33. Sea-level pressure is determined by both the amount of mass in the atmosphere and the strength of the earth's gravity.

 

34. Sea-level pressure is determined by both the amount of mass in the atmosphere and the strength of the earth's gravity.

 

35. Identify whether the listed gas is considered an inert trace gas, a greenhouse trace gas, or an abundant (concentration > 10%) primary constituent of air.
36. You decide to "take a hike". The elevation at the trailhead is 1.6 km. You