Global Temperature Patterns Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Dry cloudless air neither traps outgoing radiation at night nor blocks incoming sunlight by day. Water vapour and cloud both damp the range considerably. Deserts show the greatest daily swings. Clear dry air neither traps nor blocks.

Answer: D

The first two are correct. The third is quite wrong, since the great heat capacity of water keeps the ocean surface temperature almost constant through the day. Cloud works at both ends of the day. Water has an enormous heat capacity.

Answer: A

Correct answer: increases with height

An inversion is a layer in which the normal decrease with height is inverted, so warm air lies above cold. Because the cold air below is denser, the layer is very stable and resists vertical motion - which is what makes inversions matter far beyond their thermal profile, as the next item shows.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both are true and the reason gives the mechanism. Under an inversion the air beneath is trapped: convection cannot lift pollutants through the warmer layer above, so emissions accumulate in a shallow depth instead of dispersing through the troposphere. The classic severe episodes - London in 1952, Los Angeles, the Po valley in winter - all occurred under persistent inversions.

Answer: C

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

Four routes to the same profile. A radiation inversion forms when the ground loses heat on a clear calm night and chills the air touching it. A subsidence inversion forms aloft where sinking air in a high-pressure system warms by compression. A frontal inversion occurs where warm air rides over colder air at a front. And a valley inversion forms when cold dense air drains downhill and pools in the bottom.

Answer: D

Correct answer: a maritime windward coast

A windward coast has the ocean upwind, so its air arrives already moderated by water - that is precisely what reduces the annual range. The other three all widen it: distance from the ocean removes the moderating influence, high latitude increases the seasonal swing in insolation, and clear skies allow strong heating in summer and strong radiative loss in winter.

Answer: A

A dry interior does the opposite and produces the largest extremes of any climate type. The other three all damp the swings in one way or another. Dry interiors show the widest extremes. Water in any form damps the swing.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 12 degrees

\[ 25 - (2 \times 6.5) = 25 - 13 = 12\ \mathrm{degrees}. \] The two-kilometre climb is what makes tropical highlands habitable: a station at 2,000 metres in the tropics has the mean temperature of a temperate lowland while keeping the small annual range of its latitude, which is why cities such as Nairobi, Bogota and Addis Ababa sit where they do.

Answer: C

Correct answer: warmer than the countryside at night

The heat island is strongest after dark and under calm clear conditions. Concrete and asphalt store the day’s heat and release it slowly, buildings restrict the sky the surface can radiate to, there is little vegetation to cool by evaporation, and heating, traffic and air conditioning add heat directly. The daytime difference is usually much smaller.

Answer: D

Both are true and the reason gives both mechanisms, and this dependence on weather is one reason the effect varies so much from night to night. Wind and cloud both weaken the island. Calm clear nights show it at its strongest.