Solution: Lab 3 - Cyclone
Cycles
1. (5 points) Is Luis's path clockwise or counter clockwise? What phenomena accounts for this?
| Score Level |
Description |
5 |
Student states that the path is clockwise and this is due to the Coriolis force. |
2 |
Student indicates that the path is clockwise but falls short of indicating that the Coriolis force is the cause of this. |
0 |
Wrong visualizations compared or answer is blank. |
2. (5 points) Did the winds in Luis spin clockwise or counter clockwise? If you are having trouble observing this in the movie,
consider what you know about cyclones (are they low pressure or high pressure zones?).
| Score Level |
Description |
5 |
The student correctly states that the winds spin counter clockwise. |
0 |
Answer is left blank. |
3. (15 points) The north coast of Australia is very prone to cyclones. Do the winds in cyclones that occur along the north coast of
Australia blow clockwise or counter clockwise? What phenomenon accounts for this?
| Score Level |
Description |
15 |
The student states that the winds in hurricanes along the north coast of Australia blow clockwise because of the coriolis force and the fact that hurricanes are low pressure systems and in this case they are in the southern hemisphere. |
8-14 |
The student gets part of the answer correct, for example the cause of the spinning (low pressure and Coriolis force) but misses that the directions will be reversed from hurricanes in the USA because of being in the Southern hemisphere. |
1-7 |
The student's answer is unclear, but has something to do with pressure. |
0 |
The answer is blank |
4. (20 points) Why is it that the west coast of the United States never has problems with cyclones, while cyclones annually cause
significant destruction along the east coast of the United States?
| Score Level |
Description |
20-15 |
The student correctly answers that the cyclones occur in warm water, and due to the Coriolis force causing clockwise circulation of water in the northern hemisphere's oceans, the west coast of the United States does not experience warm enough water to be prone to cyclones. |
1-15 |
The student's answer contains elements of the above, but the answer is incomplete. |
0 |
The answer is blank or incorrect. |
5. (20 points) List the following Farenheit temperatures in the Celsius scale: 50°F, 60°F, 70°F, 80°F. Round your answers to two decimal places.
| Score Level |
Description |
20 |
50°F = 10.01°C
60°F = 15.57°C
70°F = 21.13°C
80°F = 26.69°C |
1-19 |
The student makes some correct conversions, but not all. |
0 |
Answer is blank, entirely arbitrary or inappropriate. |
6. (10 points) How is the tilt of the earth related to the pattern of ocean heating? Give specific examples.
| Score Level |
Description |
10-8 |
Student notes that the pattern of ocean heating follows the thermal equator. Student may also make observations that the maximum ocean temperature shifts to the north in the northern hemisphere's summer, reaching a maximum around the tropic of cancer, and shifts to the south during the southern hemisphere's summer, reaching a maximum around the tropic of capricorn. Student gives specific examples refering to one or more graphics. |
1-8 |
Student does part, but not all of the above. |
0 |
The answer is blank or irrelevant. |
7. (10 points) What is the optimal temperature for cyclone formation? Why do you think that this is the case?
| Score Level |
Description |
10-7 |
Student answers that the optimal temperature is 27-28 degrees. Student further answers that the warm water allows a high rate of evaporation. As this evaporated water rises and cools, it relases a large amount of latent heat energy into the atmosphere, creating the energy for cyclones. In addition, areas of warm water create low pressure. |
1-6 |
Student provides part, but not all of the above answer. |
0 |
The answer is blank |
8. (15 points) If global warming is taking place, and (hypothetically) ocean temperatures were to increase by 3°C world-wide within 100 years, what effect would this have on the frequency (how often) and latitude of cyclones? Cite specific examples based on the data you have gathered with the HTML GIS.
| Score Level |
Description |
12-15 |
If the temperatures were to incerease by 3 degrees over the globe, the latitudes prone to cyclones would expand, and we would see cyclones perhaps as far as 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south. The regions of the world prone to cyclones would, however stay the same (e.g. the east coast of continents in the northern hemisphere) as basic forces such as the coriolis force would still apply. Cyclones would happen more frequently because of a larger abundance of warm water. |
1-11 |
Student states part of the above, but leaves out specific examples, or does not answer the whole question. |
0 |
The answer is blank or irrelevant. |
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