Earth Science 10: Movement in the Atmosphere: Vocabulary
Terms
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- consistent winds in the subtropics and tropics once used by ships sailing from Europe to the New World
- trade winds
- swollen, upper portion of a thundercloud
- thunderhead
- consistent winds blowing from the poles which bring cold, dry air to the northern part of North America
- polar easterlies
- a permanent low-pressure area along the equator caused by the rising of warm air
- doldrums
- an air mass that is warmer than the surface over which it moves
- warm air mass
- a transient, sometimes violent storm of thunder and lightning, often accompanied by rain and sometimes hail
- thunderstorm
- most common type of violent storm
- thunderstorm
- a breeze that blows from shore to sea, usually during the night
- land breeze
- tornado occurring at sea
- waterspout
- an air mass that forms over cold areas
- polar air mass
- the calm, clear area at the center of a hurricane
- eye
- advancing edge of a cold air mass
- cold front
- wind system that influences large climatic regions and reverses direction seasonally
- monsoon
- the arrangement when a cool air mass and a cold air mass trap a warm air mass between them, and then the warm air mass rises over the other air masses and loses all contact with the ground
- occluded front
- lightning formed when a stepped leader branches on the way to the ground
- forked lightning
- electrical discharge that occurs either between clouds or between a cloud and the ground
- lightning
- a huge body of air having relatively uniform temperature and humidity and covering hundreds or thousands of square kilometers
- air mass
- air mass that forms over an ocean
- maritime air mass
- leading edge of a warm air mass
- warm front
- metal rod attached to the highest point of a building's roof which can conduct lightning to the ground via metal conductor cables
- lightning rod
- boundary between air masses that do not mix
- front
- a low-pressure area formed at 60 degrees N when the prevailing westerlies rise above the polar easterlies
- subpolar low
- waves that break onto the shore several hundred kilometers ahead of a hurricane, giving the first sign of the approaching storm
- storm swell
- zone of contact between two dissimilar air masses, neither of which is displacing the other, and usually resulting in no weather change
- stationary front
- narrow, funnel-shaped cyclonic windstorm extending down from a cumulonimbus cloud
- tornado
- consistent winds blowing towards the poles from 30 degrees latitude
- prevailing westerlies
- barely visible lightning discharge that jumps in a series of steps from the cloud to the ground
- stepped leader
- line of violent thunderstorms that sometimes accompanies an advancing cold front
- squall line
- lightning discharge from the ground to the cloud
- return stroke
- an air mass that is colder than the surface over which it moves
- cold air mass
- a region with uniform temperature and humidity over which air masses form
- source region
- an air mass that forms over land
- continental air mass
- flashes of lightning from clouds too far away for the thunder to be heard
- heat lightning
- hurricane in the region of the Indian Ocean
- cyclone
- the effect of wind circling an area of low pressure, or a general term for any low-pressure area
- cyclone
- a breeze that blows from the sea to the shore, usually during the day
- sea breeze
- giant windstorms that form over the tropical oceans near the equator
- hurricanes
- an air mass that forms over warm areas
- tropical air mass
- permanent high-pressure areas caused by descending cold air and result in no horizontal wind, which is dangerous to sailing ships
- horse latitudes