~ Aviation Management ~

Ch. 6 Vocab. [Private Pilot]

~ Chapter 6 - A;

- Atmosphere; mixture of life-giving gases surrounding our planet.

- Troposphere (layer); layer extending from the surface to an average altitude of about 36,000 ft.

- Tropopause (level); acts as a lid to confine most of the water vapor, and associated weather, to the troposphere.

- Stratosphere; (same composition as the troposphere and extends to a height of approx. 160,000 ft. 

- Mesosphere & Thermosphere; have little practical influence over weather.

- Circulation; movement of air relative to the earth's surface.

- Convection; circulation process caused by unequal air density which results from heating inequities. 

- Isobars; pressure readings on weather maps that connect points of equal pressure with lines that are measured in millibars and are usually drawn and four-millibar intervals.

- Pressure Gradient; change in pressure over distance.

- High; center of high pressure surrounded on all sides by lower pressure.

- Low; area of low pressure surrounded an all sides by higher pressure.

- Ridge; elongated area of high pressure.

- Trough; elongated area of low pressure.

- Col; designates either a neutral area between two highs and two lows, or the intersection of a ridge and a trough.

- Pressure Gradient Force; results when there is a difference in pressure across a surface.

- Coriolis Force; affects all objects moving freely across the face of the earth; anything that would otherwise follow a straight line, end up tracing a curved path due to the earth's rotation.

- Frictional Force; reduces the Coriolis force since the pressure gradient force is now greater than Coriolis force, leaving the wind diverted from its path along the isobars toward the lower pressure. 

- Land Breeze; caused by landing cooling faster than water at night, blowing from the cooler land to the warmer water.

- Valley Breeze; an upslope wind flow caused by the heating of the mountain slope which warms the adjacent air.

- Mountain Breeze; a downslope wind flow at night, caused by the cooling of the air at higher elevations.

- Katabatic Wind; any downslope wind usually stronger than a mountain breeze that can be either warm or cold.

~ Chapter 6 - B;

- Stability; the atmosphere's resistance to vertical motion.

- Adiabatic Heating; process of heating dry air through a compression. As air moves down a slope it is compressed, resulting in an increase in temperature.

- Adiabatic Cooling; process of cooling the air through expansion. As air moves up a slope, it expands with the reduction of atmospheric pressure and cools as it expands.

- Lapse Rate; rate of decrease of an atmospheric variable with altitude.

- Temperature Inversion; when temperature increases with altitude.

- Evaporation; changing of liquid water to invisible water vapor.

- Condensation; when water vapor changes to a liquid.

- Sublimation; changing of ice directly to water vapor.

- Deposition; transformation of water vapor to ice