Introduction to the Atmosphere Online

Go to the following website to answer the questions: http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_1_1.htm

Atmospheric Properties
1. Which 2 elements make up 99% of the volume of air?

2. What element is the most prevalent “trace” gas?

3. Complete the following pie graph to represent the gases in

dry air. Be sure to label each section and include percentages for
each type of gas.

4. Why is water vapor important to weather production?

Structure of the Atmosphere

5. What are the 4 layers?

6. How are the 4 layers divided?

Troposphere
7. On average, how far away from the earth’s surface is the troposphere?

8. What happens to temperature in the troposphere as altitude increases?

9. What happens to wind as height increases?

10. What happens to moisture as height increases?

Atmospheric Processes
11. Where does most of the water vapor in the atmosphere come from?

12. How much water returns to the atmosphere via the water cycle?

Energy Heat Transfer

13. What are the 3 ways that energy is transferred between the earth’s surface and the
atmosphere?
1)

2)

3)

14. What is conduction?

15. What is convection?

16. What is radiation?

17. Have you seen heat transferred in any of these ways, anywhere else in the Earth?
Where have you seen it? Explain what was happening.