Source regions of global air masses.

Water vapor generated through surface evaporation is transported by circulatory patterns in the atmosphere. When atmospheric conditions permit an uplift of warm, humid air, this water condenses and settles to the surface as precipitation. Most of the water is then transported back to lower elevations by river systems, usually returning to the oceans or being deposited into lakes. This water cycle is a vital mechanism for supporting life on land, and is a primary factor in the erosion of surface features over geological periods. Precipitation patterns vary widely, ranging from several meters of water per year to less than a millimeter. Atmospheric circulation, topological features and temperature differences determine the average precipitation that falls in each region.

Upper atmosphere

Above the troposphere, the atmosphere is usually divided into the stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. Each of these layers has a different lapse rate, defining the rate of change in temperature with height. Beyond these, the exosphere thins out into the magnetosphere (where the Earth’s magnetic fields interact with the solar wind). An important part of the atmosphere for life on Earth is the ozone layer, a component of the stratosphere that partially shields the surface from ultraviolet light

This view from orbit shows the full Moon partially

obscured by the Earth’s atmosphere. NASA image.

Due to thermal energy, some of the molecules at the outer edge of the Earth’s atmosphere have their velocity increased to the point where they can escape from the planet’s gravity. This results in a slow but steady leakage of the atmosphere into space. Because unfixed hydrogen has a low molecular weight, it can achieve escape velocity more readily and it leaks into outer space at a greater rate. For this reason, the Earth’s current environment is oxidizing, rather than reducing, with consequences for the chemical nature of life which developed on the planet. The oxygen-rich atmosphere also preserves much of the surviving hydrogen by locking it up in water molecules.

Biosphere

A planet that can sustain life is termed habitable, even if life did not originate there. The Earth provides the (currently understood) requisite conditions of liquid water, an environment where complex organic molecules can assemble, and sufficient energy to sustain metabolism. The distance of the Earth from the Sun, as well as its orbital eccentricity, rate of rotation, axial tilt, geological history, sustaining atmosphere and protective magnetic field all contribute to the conditions necessary to originate and sustain life on this planet.

The planet’s life forms are sometimes said to form a “biosphere”. This biosphere is generally believed to have begun evolving about 3.5 billion years ago. Earth is the only place in the universe where life is known to exist. Some scientists believe that Earth-like biospheres might be rare.

The biosphere is divided into a number of biomes, inhabited by broadly similar plants and animals. On land primarily latitude and height above the sea level separates biomes. Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic, Antarctic Circle or in high altitudes are relatively barren of plant and animal life, while the greatest latitudinal diversity of species is found at the Equator.

III. Answer the questions:

1. What is hydrosphere?

2. Is Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean the deepest underwater location?

3. What is average depth of the oceans?

4. What kinds of water do we have on our planet?

5. What can cause significant weather shifts?

6. Oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide are the main gases in the atmosphere, are not they?

7. How many atmospheric functions do you know? Make a list of them.

8. What is greenhouse effect?

9. Where are the three-quarters of the atmosphere’s mass located?

10. What can you tell about the troposphere?

11. What mechanism is vital for supporting life? Describe it.

12. How many layers of upper atmosphere do we have? Describe them.

13. What are the main conditions for life sustaining?

14. What is biosphere?

IV. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Explain why.

1. The Earth’s hydrosphere consists only of the oceans.

2. The majority of the fresh water, about 68.7%, is currently in the form of ice.

3. Hydrosphere has no influence on the world’s climate.

4. Our current atmosphere has just thermal origins only.

5. The only atmospheric function is to block solar radiation.

6. Greenhouse effect has no influence on the life on our planet.

7. Troposphere plays the great role in weather and climate formation.

8. There is no water cycle on the Earth.

9. All the layers of upper atmosphere are similar and there is an ozone layer in each of them.

10. The Earth is a habitable planet.

11. Biosphere consists of humans only.

V. What new information have you learned from this article? Have you got anything to add? Discuss it into groups.

VI. Think why are all the Earth’s spheres so important to each other? And what will happen if one of them disappears? Share your ideas.

Magnetic field and the Moon

I. Learn active vocabulary:

dipole - диполь

convection motion – конвекционное движение

conducting material – проводниковый материал, проводник

electric currents – электрический ток

alignment – магнитный заряд

to deflect – отклоняться, менять направление

collision - столкновение

energetic charged particles – энергетически заряженные частицы

torus - полукруглый

aurora – северное сияние

dwarf - карлик

attraction - притяжение

solar terminator – солнечная заглушка

lunar phases – фазы луны

torque – крутящий момент

the plane of the ecliptic – плоскость эклиптики

controversial – спорный

eclipse - затмение

volatile – летучий, переменный

II. Read and translate the text:

Magnetic field

The Earth’s magnetic field, which approximates a dipole.

The Earth’s magnetic field is shaped roughly as a magnetic dipole, with the poles currently located proximate to the planet’s geographic poles. According to dynamo theory, the field is generated within the molten outer core region where heat creates convection motions of conducting materials, generating electric currents. These in turn produce the Earth’s magnetic field. The convection movements in the core are chaotic in nature, and periodically change alignment. This results in field reversals at irregular intervals averaging a few times every million years. The most recent reversal occurred approximately 700,000 years ago.

The field forms the magnetosphere, which deflects particles in the solar wind. The sunward edge of the bow shock is located at about 13 times the radius of the Earth. The collision between the magnetic field and the solar wind forms the Van Allen radiation belts, a pair of concentric, torus-shaped regions of energetic charged particles. When the plasma enters the Earth’s atmosphere at the magnetic poles, it forms the aurora.

Moon

Name	Diameter	Mass	Semi-major axis	Orbital period
Moon	3,474.8 km	7.349×1022 kg	384,400 km	27 days, 7 hours, 43.7 minutes
	2,159.2 mi	8.1×1019 (short) tons	238,700 mi

The Moon is a relatively large, terrestrial, planet-like satellite, with a diameter about one-quarter of the Earth’s. It is the largest moon in the solar system relative to the size of its planet. (Charon is larger relative to the dwarf planet Pluto.) The natural satellites orbiting other planets are called “moons” after Earth’s Moon.

The gravitational attraction between the Earth and Moon causes tides on Earth. The same effect on the Moon has led to its tidal locking: its rotation period is the same as the time it takes to orbit the Earth. As a result, it always presents the same face to the planet. As the Moon orbits Earth, different parts of its face are illuminated by the Sun, leading to the lunar phases: The dark part of the face is separated from the light part by the solar terminator.

The Moon may have dramatically affected the development of life by moderating the planet’s climate. Paleontological evidence and computer simulations show that Earth’s axial tilt is stabilized by tidal interactions with the Moon. Some theorists believe that without this stabilization against the torques applied by the Sun and planets to the Earth’s equatorial bulge, the rotational axis might be chaotically unstable, as it appears to be for Mars. If Earth’s axis of rotation were to approach the plane of the ecliptic, extremely severe weather could result from the resulting extreme seasonal differences. One pole would be pointed directly toward the Sun during summer and directly away during winter. Planetary scientists who have studied the effect claim that this might kill all large animal and higher plant life. However, this is a controversial subject, and further studies of Mars—which has a similar rotation period and axial tilt as Earth, but not its large Moon or liquid core—may settle the matter.

Viewed from Earth, the Moon is just far enough away to have very nearly the same apparent-sized disk as the Sun. The angular size (or solid angle) of these two bodies match because, although the Sun’s diameter is about 400 times as large as the Moon’s, it is also 400 times more distant. This allows total and annular eclipses to occur on Earth.

A scale representation of the relative sizes of, and distance between, Earth and Moon.

The most widely accepted theory of the Moon’s origin, the giant impact theory, states that it formed from the collision of a Mars-size protoplanet called Theia with the early Earth. This hypothesis explains (among other things) the Moon’s relative lack of iron and volatile elements, and the fact that its composition is nearly identical to that of the Earth’s crust.

III. Answer the questions:

1. What is the Earth’s magnetic field?

2. How can you explain the generation of magnetic field?

3. What is the role of the magnetosphere?

4. Is aurora physical or optical effect?

5. What is an energetic charged particle?

6. Is the Moon a planet?

7. Is there only one Moon in the Solar system?

8. Where can we see the interaction between the Earth and the Moon?

9. What is tidal locking of the Moon?

10. How does the Moon help to form our climate?

11. How can you explain total and annular eclipses which we can see on the Earth?

12. Do you know any other theories of the Moon formation?

IV. Think over and share your ideas:

If the Moon is a part of our planet and its composition is nearly identical to that of the Earth’s crust, why is there no atmosphere and no life on it?

V. Try to read and understand the following text:

Give your opinion about the future of our planet.

Future

The future of the planet is closely tied to that of the Sun. As a result of the steady accumulation of helium ash at the Sun’s core, the star’s total luminosity will slowly increase. The luminosity of the Sun will increase by 10 percent over the next 1.1 Gyr (1.1 billion years), and by 40% over the next 3.5 Gyr. Climate models indicate that the rise in radiation reaching the Earth is likely to have dire consequences, including the possible loss of the planet’s oceans.

The Earth’s increasing surface temperature will accelerate the inorganic CO2 cycle, reducing its concentration to the lethal levels for plants (10 ppm for C4 photosynthesis) in 900 million years. The lack of vegetation will result in the loss of oxygen in the atmosphere, so animal life will become extinct within several million more years. But even if the Sun were eternal and stable, the continued internal cooling of the Earth would have resulted in a loss of much of its atmosphere and oceans (due to lower volcanism). After another billion years the surface water will have completely disappeared and the mean global temperature will reach 70°C. The Earth is expected to be effectively habitable for another 500 million years or so.

The Sun, as part of its evolution, will expand to a red giant in about 5 Gyr. Models predict that the Sun will expand out to about 250 times its present size, roughly 1 AU (150,000,000 km). Earth’s fate is less clear. As a red giant, the Sun will lose roughly 30% of its mass, so, without tidal effects, the Earth will be in an orbit 1.7 AU (250,000,000 km) from the Sun when the star reaches it maximum radius. Therefore, the planet is expected to escape envelopment by the expanded Sun’s sparse outer atmosphere, though most, if not all, existing life will be destroyed because of the Sun’s increased luminosity. However, a more recent simulation indicates that Earth’s orbit will decay due to tidal effects and drag, causing it to enter the red giant Sun’s atmosphere and be destroyed.

VI. Make up the plan of this chapter and give the brief description of the Earth.

CHAPTER II

Hydrology

Water covers 70% of the Earth’s surface.

I. Learn active vocabulary:

to provide – предоставлять, обеспечивать

globe – земной шар

flow – поток, течение

wetland - болото

estuary – устье реки

subset - подмножество

hydrologic cycle – круговорот воды

ground waters – грунтовые воды

stream – река, ручей, поток

pond - пруд

marsh - болото

arroyo – ручей, речка

flood - наводнение

drought - засуха

susceptibility – восприимчивость, чувствительность

fluid mechanics – механика жидкости

transpiration – испарение (с поверхности растений)

rainfall – количество осадков

runoff – поверхностный сток, расход, водосток

sewerage – канализационные системы, сточные воды

base flow – базисный сток

need - потребность

well – родник, водоем, колодец

to dam – строить плотину

productivity - продуктивность

to infiltrate - просачиваться

spring – исток, источник, ключ

to quantify – измерять, мерить

drainage area - водосбор

sufficient - достаточный

cross-section – поперечное сечение

discharge – расход

outflow –потери

piezometer - пьезометр

equation - уравнение

hydraulics - гидравлика

to facilitate – содействовать, способствовать

II. Read and translate the text:

General information and history

Hydrology (from Greek: Yδωρ, hudōr, “water”; and λόγος, logos, “study”) is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water throughout the Earth, and thus addresses both the hydrologic cycle and water resources. A practitioner of hydrology is a hydrologist, working within the fields of either earth or environmental science, physical geography or civil and environmental engineering.

Domains of hydrology include hydrometeorology, surface hydrology, hydrogeology, drainage basin management and water quality, where water plays the central role. Oceanography and meteorology are not included because water is only one of many important aspects.

Hydrological research is useful in that it allows us to better understand the world in which we live, and also provides insight for environmental engineering, policy and planning.

Surface-water hydrology

Surface water hydrology is a field that encompasses all surface waters of the globe (overland flows, rivers, lakes, wetlands, estuaries, oceans, etc). This is a subset of the hydrologic cycle that does not include atmospheric, and ground waters. Surface water hydrology relates the dynamics of flow in surface water systems (rivers, canals, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, marshes, arroyos, oceans, etc.). This includes the field measurement of flow (discharge); the statistical variability at each setting; floods; drought susceptibility and the development of the levels of risk; and the fluid mechanics of surface waters.

In-depth analysis of surface water components of the hydrologic cycle: hydrometeorology, evaporation/transpiration, rainfall-runoff relationships, open-channel flow, flood hydrology, fluid mechanics, and statistical and probabilistic methods in hydrology. Surface water hydrology includes the relation between rainfall and surface runoff; this relationship is an important aspect of water resources for sewerage (wastewater) or (sewage), drinking water, agriculture (irrigation) environmental protection, and for flood control.

The relationships between groundwater and surface water, includes base flow needs for in stream flow, and subsurface water levels in wells.

History of hydrology

Hydrology has been a subject of investigation and engineering for millennia. For example, in about 4000 B.C. the Nile was dammed to improve agricultural productivity of previously barren lands. Mesopotamian towns were protected from flooding with high earthen walls. Aqueducts were built by the Greeks and Ancient Romans, while the History of China shows they built irrigation and flood control works. The ancient Sinhalese used hydrology to build complex irrigation Works in Sri Lanka, also known for invention of the Valve Pit which allowed construction of large reservoirs and canals which still function.

Marcus Vitruvius, in the first century B.C., described a philosophical theory of the hydrologic cycle, in which precipitation falling in the mountains infiltrated the earth’s surface and led to streams and springs in the lowlands. With adoption of a more scientific approach, Leonardo da Vinci and Bernard Palissy independently reached an accurate representation of the hydrologic cycle. It was not until the 17^th century that hydrologic variables began to be quantified.

Pioneers of the modern science of hydrology include Pierre Perrault, Edme Mariotte and Edmund Halley. By measuring rainfall, runoff, and drainage area, Perrault showed that rainfall was sufficient to account for flow of the Seine. Marriotte combined velocity and river cross-section measurements to obtain discharge, again in the Seine. Halley showed that the evaporation from the Mediterranean Sea was sufficient to account for the outflow of rivers flowing into the sea.

Advances in the 18^th century included the Bernoulli piezometer and Bernoulli’s equation, by Daniel Bernoulli, the Pitot tube. The 19^th century saw development in groundwater hydrology, including Darcy’s law, the Dupuit-Thiem well formula, and Hagen-Poiseuille’s capillary flow equation.

Rational analyses began to replace empiricism in the 20^th century, while governmental agencies began their own hydrological research programs. Of particular importance were Leroy Sherman’s unit hydrograph, the infiltration theory of Robert E. Horton, and C.V. Theis’s Aquifer test/equation describing well hydraulics.

Since the 1950’s, hydrology has been approached with a more theoretical basis than in the past, facilitated by advances in the physical understanding of hydrological processes and by the advent of computers and especially Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

III. Answer the questions:

1. What is a subject of hydrology?

2. Name the scientists which work in this field of science?

3. What are domains of hydrology?

4. Is there any difference between hydrology and surface water hydrology?

5. What kind of surface water resources do you know?

6. Hydrology includes the field measurement of flow (discharge); the statistical variability at each setting; floods; drought susceptibility and the development of the levels of risk; and the fluid mechanics of surface waters, does not it?

7. What components of hydrologic cycle do you know?

8. What is an important aspect of water surface hydrology?

9. How did ancient people apply their hydrological knowledge?

10. What was the conception of ancient people about the hydrologic cycle?

11. Who were the pioneers of modern hydrology and why?

12. What other inventions in hydrology do you know?

IV. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Explain why.

1. Hydrology is the study of seas and oceans.

2. Domains of hydrology include hydrometeorology, surface hydrology, hydrogeology, drainage basin management and water quality, where water plays the central role.

3. There is no difference between hydrology and surface water hydrology.

4. Surface water hydrology relates the dynamics of flow just in rivers and streams.

5. Surface water hydrology includes the relation between rainfall and surface runoff; this relationship is an important aspect of water resources.

6. Ancient people did not have any hydrological knowledge.

7. Marcus Vitruvius was the first who described hydrologic cycle.

8. Pioneers of the modern science of hydrology include Pierre Perrault, Edme Mariotte and Edmund Halley.

9. Pierre Perrault, Edme Mariotte made their experiments in Thems.

10. Since the 1950’s, hydrology has been approached with a more theoretical basis than in the past.

V. What new information have you learned from this article? Can you add anything of your own to it? Discuss it into groups.

Water cycle

I. Learn active vocabulary:

state - состояние

to remain constant – оставаться постоянным

to drive - управлять

to sublimate - сублимировать

to collide - сталкиваться

to store – хранить, сохранять

to thaw – таять, растапливать

to melt – таять

streamflow – русловой речной сток, объем речного стока

seepage – утечка, просачивание

to soak – впитывать, просачиваться

to replenish – наполнять, пополнять

aquifer – водоносный слой

hail - град

sleet – дождь со снегом

canopy – крона деревьев

interception – преграда, заслон

channel runoff - русловой сток

vadose zone – вадозная зона

advection - адвекция

eutrophication – эвтрофикация (зарастание водоема водорослями)

outlet - сток

to funnel – добавлять

II. Read and translate the text:

The Earth’s water is always in movement, and the water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Since the water cycle is truly a “cycle,” there is no beginning or end. Water can change states among liquid, vapor, and ice at various places in the water cycle, with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over millions of years. Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go in a hurry, but there is always the same amount of water on the surface of the earth.

The water cycle

The water cycle has no starting or ending point. The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in the oceans. Some of it evaporates as vapor into the air. Ice and snow can sublimate directly into water vapor. Rising air currents take the vapor up into the atmosphere, along with water from evapotranspiration, which is water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil. The vapor rises into the air where cooler temperatures cause it to condense into clouds. Air currents move clouds around the globe, cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out of the sky as precipitation. Some precipitation falls as snow and can accumulate as ice caps and glaciers, which can store frozen water for thousands of years. Snowpacks in warmer climates often thaw and melt when spring arrives, and the melted water flows overland as snowmelt. Most precipitation falls back into the oceans or onto land, where, due to gravity, the precipitation flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of runoff enters rivers in valleys in the landscape, with streamflow moving water towards the oceans. Runoff, and ground-water seepage, accumulate and are stored as freshwater in lakes. Not all runoff flows into rivers. Much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration. Some water infiltrates deep into the ground and replenishes aquifers (saturated subsurface rock), which store huge amounts of freshwater for long periods of time. Some infiltration stays close to the land surface and can seep back into surface-water bodies (and the ocean) as ground-water discharge, and some ground water finds openings in the land surface and emerges as freshwater springs. Over time, the water continues flowing, some to reenter the ocean, where the water cycle renews itself.

The different processes are as follows:

• Precipitation is condensed water vapor that falls to the Earth’s surface. Most precipitation occurs as rain, but also includes snow, hail, fog drip, and sleet. Approximately 505,000 km³ of water fall as precipitation each year, 398,000 km³ of it over the oceans.

• Canopy interception is the precipitation that is intercepted by plant foliage and eventually evaporates back to the atmosphere rather than falling to the ground.

• Snowmelt refers to the runoff produced by melting snow.

• Runoff includes the variety of ways by which water moves across the land. This includes both surface runoff and channel runoff. As it flows, the water may infiltrate into the ground, evaporate into the air, become stored in lakes or reservoirs, or be extracted for agricultural or other human uses.

• Infiltration is the flow of water from the ground surface into the ground. Once infiltrated, the water becomes soil moisture or groundwater.

• Subsurface Flow is the flow of water underground, in the vadose zone and aquifers. Subsurface water may return to the surface (eg. as a spring or by being pumped) or eventually seep into the oceans. Water returns to the land surface at lower elevation than where it infiltrated, under the force of gravity or gravity induced pressures. Groundwater tends to move slowly, and is replenished slowly, so it can remain in aquifers for thousands of years.

• Evaporation is the transformation of water from liquid to gas phases as it moves from the ground or bodies of water into the overlying atmosphere. The source of energy for evaporation is primarily solar radiation. Evaporation often implicitly includes transpiration from plants, though together they are specifically referred to as evapotranspiration. Total annual evapotranspiration amounts to approximately 505,000 km³ of water, 434,000 km³ of which evaporates from the oceans.

• Sublimation is the state change directly from solid water (snow or ice) to water vapor.

• Advection is the movement of water — in solid, liquid, or vapor states — through the atmosphere. Without advection, water that evaporated over the oceans could not precipitate over land.

• Condensation is the transformation of water vapor to liquid water droplets in the air, producing clouds and fog.

In the context of the water cycle, a reservoir represents the water contained in different steps within the cycle. The largest reservoir is the collection of oceans, accounting for 97% of the Earth’s water. The next largest quantity (2%) is stored in solid form in the ice caps and glaciers. The water contained within all living organisms represents the smallest reservoir.

The volume of water in the fresh water reservoirs, particularly those that are available for human use, are important water resources.

The residence time of a reservoir within the hydrologic cycle is the average time a water molecule will spend in that reservoir. It is a measure of the average age of the water in that reservoir, though some water will spend much less time than average, and some much more.

Groundwater can spend over 10,000 years beneath Earth’s surface before leaving. Particularly old groundwater is called fossil water. Water stored in the soil remains there very briefly, because it is spread thinly across the Earth, and is readily lost by evaporation, transpiration, stream flow, or groundwater recharge. After evaporating, water remains in the atmosphere for about 9 days before condensing and falling to the Earth as precipitation.

In hydrology, residence times can be estimated in two ways. The more common method relies on the principle of conservation of mass and assumes the amount of water in a given reservoir is roughly constant. With this method, residence times are estimated by dividing the volume of the reservoir by the rate by which water either enters or exits the reservoir. Conceptually, this is equivalent to timing how long it would take the reservoir to become filled from empty if no water were to leave (or how long it would take the reservoir to empty from full if no water were to enter).

An alternative method to estimate residence times, gaining in popularity particularly for dating groundwater, is the use of isotopic techniques. This is done in the subfield of isotope hydrology.

The water cycle is powered from solar energy. 86% of the global evaporation occurs from the oceans, reducing their temperature by evaporative cooling. Without the cooling effect of evaporation the greenhouse effect would lead to a much higher surface temperature of 67 °C, and a warmer planet.

While the water cycle is itself a biogeochemical cycle, flow of water over and beneath the Earth is a key component of the cycling of other biogeochemicals. Runoff is responsible for almost all of the transport of eroded sediment and phosphorus from land to water bodies. The salinity of the oceans is derived from erosion and transport of dissolved salts from the land. Cultural eutrophication of lakes is primarily due to phosphorus, applied in excess to agricultural fields in fertilizers, and then transported overland and down rivers. Both runoff and groundwater flow play significant roles in transporting nitrogen from the land to water bodies. The dead zone at the outlet of the Mississippi River is a consequence of nitrates from fertilizer being carried off agricultural fields and funneled down the river system to the Gulf of Mexico. Runoff also plays a part in the carbon cycle, again through the transport of eroded rock and soil.

III. Answer the questions:

1. What does the water cycle describe?

2. How many water states do you know? Make a list of them.

3. Is the amount of water on the Earth constant or not?

4. How does the water enter the atmosphere?

5. What happens to water vapor in the atmosphere?

6. What kinds of precipitations do you know? What happens to them on the Earth?

7. What is ground water? Does it get in to the oceans or stay beneath the surface?

8. How many processes of water cycle do you know? Make a list of them.

9. What is a water reservoir? What are the largest?

10. What is the residence time of a reservoir within the hydrologic cycle?

11. How many ways of estimation of residence time do you know? Describe them.

12. What is the driving force of the water cycle?

13. Does water cycle have any influence on biogeochemical processes on the Earth?

IV. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Explain why.

1. Water has the liquid state only.

2. The balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over the time.

3. Water gets into the atmosphere in solid state.

4. Cloud is a water vapor which travels around the globe.

5. Evaporation is the only way for water to reach the atmosphere.

6. Rain is the only kind of precipitations on our planet.

7. Liquid state is the only state for water to store.

8. Streamflow moves water towards the oceans.

9. Only surface water takes part in water cycle.

10. Water always flows to the oceans.

11. The largest reservoir is the collection of oceans.

12. There is some period of time when water remains in the atmosphere before falling to the Earth as precipitation.

13. Water cycle does not influence on the climate.

14. Water cycle is a biogeochemical process.

VI. Try to explain the following terms in English:

Precipitation, canopy interception, snowmelt, runoff, infiltration, subsurface flow, evaporation, sublimation, advection, condensation

V. Describe the water cycle using the picture on page 19.

VI. What new information have you learned from this article? Have you got anything to add? Discuss it into groups.

VII. Think over and give your opinion:

Will there be any changes in water cycle if the climate of our planet changes?

Chapter III

Meteorology

I. Learn active vocabulary:

to focus - сосредотачиваться

to forecast – прогнозировать (о погоде)

application – применение, приложение, использование

diverse - различный

pressure gradient force – сила градиента давления

deflecting force – отклоняющая сила

isobar - изобара

to predict – предсказывать, прогнозировать

quantitative - количественный

endeavor – попытка, стремление

input - вклад

teleconnection – сеанс дальней связи

computational power – вычислительные возможности

initial – начальный, исходный

outcome - результат

utility companies – коммунальные предприятия

demand – спрос, потребность

curtail – сокращать, уменьшать

II. Read and translate the text:

Meteorology (from Greek: μετέωρον, metéōron, “high in the sky”; and λόγος, lógos, “knowledge”) is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting (in contrast with climatology). Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events which illuminate and are explained by the science of meteorology. Those events are bound by the variables that exist in Earth’s atmosphere. They are temperature, pressure, water vapor, and the gradients and interactions of each variable, and how they change in time. The majority of Earth’s observed weather is located in the troposphere.

Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences. Meteorology and hydrology compose the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology.

Interactions between Earth’s atmosphere and the oceans are part of coupled ocean-atmosphere studies. Meteorology has application in many diverse fields such as the military, energy production, transport, agriculture and construction.

Coriolis effect.

Understanding the kinematics of how exactly the rotation of the Earth affects airflow was partial at first. Late in the 19^th century the full extent of the large scale interaction of pressure gradient force and deflecting force that in the end causes air masses to move along isobars was understood. Early in the 20^th century this deflecting force was named the Coriolis effect after Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, who had published in 1835 on the energy yield of machines with rotating parts, such as waterwheels. In 1856, William Ferrel proposed the existence of a circulation cell in the mid-latitudes with air being deflected by the Coriolis force to create the prevailing westerly winds.