Global Temperature Patterns Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: sunlight strikes high latitudes obliquely

A given beam of sunlight spreads over a larger area of ground where it strikes obliquely, so the energy per square metre falls with latitude; the longer path through the atmosphere increases the losses further. The Earth’s distance from the Sun varies with the season rather than the latitude, and the equator is if anything slightly further from the centre than the poles.

Answer: B

Both are true and the reason gives both mechanisms: the ocean warms and cools slowly and distributes the change through a deep layer, while land responds within a thin surface skin. Mixing carries the change downwards in water.

Answer: C

The further from the moderating influence of the ocean, the hotter the summers and the colder the winters. Siberia and central Canada are the classic examples. Distance from the ocean is what counts. Range grows steadily inland.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 1 and 2 only

Statements 1 and 2 are correct: water’s high heat capacity and its mixing through depth moderate a maritime climate, while a continental interior heats and cools quickly. Statement 3 is not generally true - ocean currents shift the annual mean as well as the range, so a windward coast washed by a warm current is markedly warmer than an interior at the same latitude, not merely less variable.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 40 degrees

\[ 20 - (-20) = 40\ \mathrm{degrees}. \] The range is the difference between the warmest and coldest monthly means, and the minus sign is where this is got wrong - subtracting a negative adds. A range of 40 degrees is a strongly continental figure, characteristic of somewhere like central Siberia or the interior of Canada.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 6.5 degrees per kilometre

The environmental lapse rate averages about 6.5 degrees per kilometre through the troposphere. It is worth distinguishing from the two adiabatic rates: the dry adiabatic rate is very nearly 10 degrees per kilometre and the saturated rate around 5, and the environmental value sits between them because the real atmosphere is a mixture of conditions rather than a parcel being lifted.

Answer: C

Both are true and the reason gives the distinction, and comparing the two is exactly how atmospheric stability is assessed. An environmental rate steeper than the adiabatic one means a rising parcel stays warmer than its surroundings and keeps rising.

Answer: D

Correct answer: A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3

Four controls acting in different ways. Latitude sets the mean, falling towards the poles. Altitude imposes the lapse rate of about six degrees per kilometre. Continentality controls the range rather than the mean, widening it inland. And ocean currents produce anomalies - places warm or cold for their latitude, western Europe and the Labrador coast being the standard pair.

Answer: A

Warm water carried north-east releases heat to air that then blows onto the continent. Labrador at the same latitude is far colder because the current and the wind both work the other way. Both factors reinforce each other here.

Answer: B

Both are true and the reason gives both parts of the explanation, and the comparison is the standard illustration of how ocean currents and wind direction combine to control a regional climate. Latitude alone explains neither case.