Please submit your work to me by the beginning of class.
These questions are for you to combine different ideas and apply them to situations not directly addressed in class or in the textbook. Think about the situation, and about the science that applies to it. See me for help if you are stuck.
For this homework, do both Part 1 and Part 2.
Answer both of the questions in Part 1. Your answers do not need to be long, but they must completely answer the question.
When warm, dry air rises, it expands and cools. When warm, humid air rises, it also expands and cools, but its temperature does not decrease as much as the temperature of dry air decreases. Why not?
Draw a diagram to explain to a fifth-grader why it is warmer in the summer than in the winter. Write a few paragraphs explaining the diagram. Your drawing and text should be understandable to a fifth-grader. Both your drawing and your paragraphs should be correct as well.
Do one, and only one, of the following:
If you have not done it already, you will eventually need to identify the Köppen climate class for your location.
Why does the wind in Wyoming (and everywhere in the mid-latitudes both north and south of the equator) usually blow from the west? Explain thoroughly.
In the southern hemisphere mid-latitudes (about 40–60°), winds blow from the west in fairly parallel globe-circling bands. In the northern hemisphere, the mid-latitude winds are still generally westerly, but are more broken up than the southern hemisphere winds. (You can see this in your text in Figure 14-21 on page 517.) Explain this difference between the hemispheres.
You may not find the answer directly in your reading or notes. The idea here is for you to think about the different factors that affect winds and synthesize your knowledge to understand a new phenomenon. Your answer will receive credit if it shows evidence of careful, logical thought.
When an airplane descends through a field of puffy cumulus clouds, it is buffetted up-and-down. Identify when and where the plane is pushed up, when and where it is pushed down, and explain why.
Thunderstorms persist much longer when there is vertical “wind shear,” that is, when winds at different altitudes have different speeds or move in different directions. Explain why this is so.
Take your choice of the tasks in Part 2. Do not submit answers to more than one of them. Your answer should thoroughly address all points of the question. An adequate answer will be several paragraphs long.
Warning: Do not turn in paper that has ragged edges! If you write your work in a spiral-bound notebook, trim the edge before submitting it. Papers with ragged edges will be returned unmarked.
You may also submit your answer using the “Assignments” tool in WyoSakai.
Copyright © 2006, Richard Barrans
Revised: 20 August 2011. Maintained by Richard Barrans.
URL: http://www.barransclass.com/astr1070/hwk/hwk_02_globalweather.html