Unit 2 
Unit Objectives and Exam Study Guide

The second unit exam covers material from "Atmospheric Moisture" through "Climate Systems". There are a substantial number of questions concerning climate. In a sense, the second is exam is cumulative because climate and weather are a function of the topics discussed in Unit 1. Questions from any assigned videos viewed during this unit are included on the exam.

Study tips:

• Check out the Unit 2 links on the Study Aids page
• Review the "Can you ...?" questions at the end of each lecture outline after I finish a lecture.
• Use the review questions and chapter quizzes in the web text to assess your learning
• Create flash cards of important terms and concepts.  Check out the flash card maker for a cheap and easy way of creating them.
• Review the lab answer keys as soon as soon as you complete a lab.
• Check out the Geography 101 blog for entries related to the topics covered in Unit 2.

For the lecture portion:

• Atmospheric moisture
  •  Know the various phases of water and what is required to move from one to the other.
  • Have a good understanding of the cause of precipitation (e.g., uplift mechanisms, stability, etc.)
  • Geographical pattern of precipitation and what controls it.
  • Characteristics of common cloud types.
  • What causes and how to determine atmospheric stability and instability
• Weather systems
  • Be able to describe the characteristics of air masses, where they form and how the change when they move out of their source region.
  • Know the characteristics of fronts.
  • Be able to describe the stages of midlatitude cyclone development and internal structure.
  • Weather associated with the passage of a midlatitude cyclone
  • Be able to explain the development of air mass thunderstorms.
• Climate systems
  • The three types of climate classification
  • The characteristics of each climate discussed
  • Location and characteristics of North American climates

For the lab portion you should be able to:

Know the various measures of humidity and what affects them (Exercise 5 Part 1)

• Know how to compute the condensation level of a rising parcel of air. (See Exercise 6 Part 1)

• Know how to compute the adiabatic temperature change in a rising parcel of air. (See your Lab notes and Exercise 6 Part 1 graph)

• Know how to determine the stability of the air. (See Exercise 6 Part 1 graph)

• Know how to identify fronts and air masses on a weather map. (See introduction to Exercise 7)

• Know how to determine the air temperature, dew point temperature, wind direction, wind speed, and air pressure from a weather map. (See introduction to Exercise 7)

• Know how to use the Koeppen Classification system (You don't need to memorize it just be able to work through the procedures.)

• Know how to identify climates from their climographs. Do this by visualizing the precipitation and temperature patterns (e.g. seasonality of precipitation, temperature range, etc. (See Exercise 8 Part 1) You will be given a sheet of climographs that includes the latitude for each station. Use the "Interactive Climate Map" to help you.

• Identify ocean currents and mountain systems on world map. (See Exercise 8 Part 2)

• Know what effect mountain orientation has on climate. (See Exercise 8 Part 3)

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