Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the “Submit my answers” button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

If an unsaturated air parcel at the surface has a temperature of 26°C, what will be the temperature of the air parcel at a height of 2000 m?
a) 16°C
b) 20°C
c) 6°C
d) 22°C

Question 2:

As unsaturated air rises, what happens to its potential temperature?
a) It increases.
b) It decreases.
c) It remains constant.
d) It is impossible to determine.

Question 3:

Which term refers to the point at which water vapour in air rising from the surface begins to condense?
a) The wet-bulb potential temperature
b) The lifting condensation level
c) The inversion cap
d) The level of free convection

Question 4:

On a thermodynamic diagram, which of the following are lines of constant atmospheric moisture?
a) Isotherms
b) Isohumes
c) Isobars
d) Isentropes

Question 5:

What are chinooks?
a) Cool, wet winds descending the leeward side of mountains
b) Warm, dry winds descending the leeward side of mountains
c) Warm, dry winds ascending the windward side of mountains
d) Cool, wet winds ascending the windward side of mountains

Question 6:

When will air have the same temperature and moisture content on the leeward side of a mountain as it did on the windward side?
a) When no precipitation falls from the cloud on the windward side
b) When all precipitation falls from the cloud on the windward side
c) When some precipitation falls from the cloud on the windward side
d) When a strong chinook develops on the leeward side

Question 7:

If the ELR is greater than the DALR, what is the state of the air?
a) It will be conditionally unstable.
b) It will be absolutely stable.
c) It will be conditionally stable.
d) It will be absolutely unstable.

Question 8:

Which of the following is NOT a process that can destabilize an air layer
a) Radiative heating of the surface
b) Advection of warm air below cold air
c) Passage of air over a cooler surface
d) Radiative cooling of cloud tops

Question 9:

Which type of inversion commonly forms in areas of high pressure?
a) Frontal
b) Subsidence
c) Radiation
d) Residual

Question 10:

Under clear-sky conditions, when does a surface radiation inversion generally reach its maximum depth?
a) Noon
b) Mid-afternoon
c) Just after sunset
d) Just before sunrise

Question 11:

The average value of the saturated adiabatic lapse rate is 6°C/km
a) True
b) False

Question 12:

A layer of air is stable when its potential temperature decreases with height
a) True
b) False

Question 13:

Cumuliform clouds tend to form when the atmosphere is unstable.
a) True
b) False

Question 14:

Radiative cooling of the surface can stabilize an air layer.
a) True
b) False

Question 15:

In a mixed layer, air temperature remains constant with height.
a) True
b) False

Higher Education

Weather and Climate: Chapter 8