Polar Vortex Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Trivia quiz questions with answers about the Polar Vortex

Polar Vortex Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What is the polar vortex?
A: A polar vortex is an upper level low-pressure area lying near the Earth's poles.

How many polar vortices are in the Earth's atmosphere?
A: There are two, overlying the North and South Poles.

Each polar vortex is a persistent, large-scale, low pressure zone that rotates which direction at the North Pole?
A: Counter-clockwise. (called a cyclone).

Which direction does it rotate at the South Pole?
A: Clockwise, i.e. both polar vortices rotate eastward around the poles.

Where are the bases of the two polar vortexes located?
A: In the middle and upper troposphere and extend into the stratosphere.

Beneath that lies a large mass of what?
A: Cold, dense arctic air.

The interface between the cold dry air mass of the pole and the warm moist air mass farther south defines what?
A: The location of the polar front.

The polar front is centered, roughly at what latitude?
A: 60°.

A polar vortex strengthens in the winter and weakens in the summer due to its what?
A: Dependence on the temperature difference between the equator and the poles.

As with other cyclones, their rotation is driven by what?
A: The Coriolis effect.

The vortices do what from year to year?
A: Weaken and strengthen.

When the vortex of the arctic is strong, it is well defined, there is a single vortex, and the arctic air is well contained; when weaker, which it generally is, it will break into what?
A: Two or more vortices; when very weak, the flow of arctic air becomes more disorganized and masses of cold arctic air can push equatorward, bringing with it a rapid and sharp temperature drop.

When the northern vortex weakens, it separates into two or more vortices, the strongest of which are near where?
A: Baffin Island, Canada and the other over northeast Siberia.

The Antarctic vortex of the Southern Hemisphere is a single low pressure zone that is found near what?
A: The edge of the Ross ice shelf near 160 west longitude.

When the polar vortex is strong, the mid-latitude Westerlies (winds at the surface level between 30° and 60° latitude from the west) do what?
A: Increase in strength and are persistent.

When the polar vortex is weak, high pressure zones of the mid latitudes may push poleward, moving the polar vortex, jet stream, and polar front toward what?
A: The equator.

The jet stream is seen to "buckle" and deviate where?
A: South.

This rapidly brings cold dry air into contact with the warm, moist air of the mid latitudes, resulting in what?
A: A rapid and dramatic change of weather known as a "cold snap".

Ozone depletion occurs where?
A: Within the polar vortices – particularly over the Southern Hemisphere – reaching a maximum depletion in the spring.

When was the polar vortex first described?
A: As early as 1853.

The phenomenon's sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) develops during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere and was discovered in 1952 with what?
A: Radiosonde observations at altitudes higher than 20 km.

The phenomenon was mentioned frequently in the news and weather media in the cold North American winter of what year?
A: 2013–2014, popularizing the term as an explanation of very cold temperatures.

The stratospheric polar vortex develops at latitudes above what?
A: The subtropical jet stream.

Horizontally, most polar vortices have a radius of less than how many miles?
A: 620 mi.

Since polar vortices exist from the stratosphere downward into the mid-troposphere, a variety of heights/pressure levels are used to what?
A: Mark its position.

The 50 mb pressure surface is most often used to identify what?
A: Its stratospheric location.

At the level of the tropopause, the extent of closed contours of potential temperature can be used to determine what?
A: Its strength.

Polar vortices are weakest during summer and strongest during what?
A: Winter.

Extratropical cyclones that migrate into higher latitudes when the polar vortex is weak can disrupt the single vortex creating what?
A: Smaller vortices (cold-core lows) within the polar air mass.

Those individual vortices can persist for how long?
A: More than a month.

Volcanic eruptions in the tropics can lead to a what?
A: A stronger polar vortex during winter for as long as two years afterwards.

The strength and position of the polar vortex shapes what?
A: The flow pattern in a broad area about it.

An index which is used in the northern hemisphere to gauge its magnitude is called what?
A: The Arctic oscillation.

When the Arctic vortex is at its strongest, there is a single vortex, but normally, the Arctic vortex is elongated in shape, with two what?
A: Cyclone centers, one over Baffin Island in Canada and the other over northeast Siberia.

When the Arctic pattern is at its weakest, subtropic air masses can intrude poleward causing the Arctic air masses to move equatorward, as during what winter?
A: The 1985 Arctic outbreak.

The Antarctic polar vortex is more what than the Arctic one?
A: Pronounced and persistent.

The breakdown of the polar vortex is an extreme event known as a what?
A: A sudden stratospheric warming, here the vortex completely breaks down and an associated warming of 30–50 °C (54–90 °F) over a few days can occur.

The waxing and waning of the polar vortex is driven by what?
A: The movement of mass and the transfer of heat in the polar region.

In the autumn, the circumpolar winds increase in speed and the polar vortex does what?
A: Rises into the stratosphere.

The result is that the polar air forms a what?
A: A coherent rotating air mass: the polar vortex.

As winter approaches, the vortex core does what?
A: It cools, the winds decrease, and the vortex energy declines.

Once late winter and early spring approach the vortex is at its what?
A: Weakest.

As a result, during late winter, large fragments of the vortex air can be diverted into what?
A: Lower latitudes by stronger weather systems intruding from those latitudes.

When does the breakup of the northern polar vortex occur?
A: Between mid March to mid May.

This event signifies what transition?
A: From winter to spring, and has impacts on the hydrological cycle, growing seasons of vegetation, and overall ecosystem productivity.

The timing of the transition also influences changes in what?
A: Sea ice, ozone, air temperature, and cloudiness.

Early and late polar breakup episodes have occurred, due to variations in what?
A: The stratospheric flow structure and upward spreading of planetary waves from the troposphere.

As a result of increased waves into the vortex, the vortex experiences what?
A: More rapid warming than normal, resulting in an earlier breakup and spring.

When the breakup comes early, it is characterized by what?
A: Persistent of remnants of the vortex.

When the breakup is late, the remnants do what?
A: Dissipate rapidly.

When the breakup is early, there is one warming period when?
A: From late February to middle March.

When the breakup is late, there are how many warming periods?
A: Two, one January, and one in March.

Sudden stratospheric warming events are associated with what?
A: Weaker polar vortices.

This warming of stratospheric air can reverse the what?
A: The circulation in the Arctic Polar Vortex from counter-clockwise to clockwise.

These changes aloft force changes in what?
A: The troposphere below.

An example of an effect on the troposphere is the change in speed of what?
A: The Atlantic Ocean circulation pattern.