METR 360 Review sheet for Final Exam

From your course syllabus, here are the topics we covered in this course:

1. Norwegian model review 5. Air masses (damming, lake effect) 9. Potential vorticity

2. Fronts 6. NCEP guidance products 10. Cyclogenesis

3. Stability 7. Waves in the westerlies 11. Jet streams

4. Upper air 8. Vertical motion

PowerPoint presentations for all topics are available on the course website (http://employees.oneonta.edu/blechmjb/JBpages/METR360top17.html).

All Labs that were graded are subject to examination. Remember the Final Exam is cumulative but the topics on this review sheet will be featured prominently.

Use the review sheets already distributed for exams 1 and 2. New topics that will be on the Final exam are as follows:

Vertical Motion:

What are the three main contributors to vertical motion? (PVA/NVA, Warm/Cold air advection, stability/instability) You should be able to recognize them on maps.

Know the signs used to denote upward and downward vertical motion

How does upward vertical motion cause precipitation from a humid atmosphere?

Cyclogenesis:

Know the two cases leading to cyclogenesis, based on the conservation of Potential Vorticity. Be able to recognize weather maps where either of these cases are happening (Lab 11)

Know the main areas where cyclogenesis tends to occur in and around North America. Be able to generalize the concepts leading to these cyclogenesis areas to other places

(e.g., where would the cyclogenesis areas be in Europe or Asia?)

Jet Streams:

Know what a Jet streak is.

What are the two main types of jet streams?

What is meant by the terms Entrance region and Exit region?

What type of absolute vorticity and vorticity advection occurs on either side of a Jet streak?

What vorticity advections occur in each of the four quadrants around a Jet streak and what are the meteorological implications of those advections? (PVA àupward vertical motion and vice versa)