4. The Atmosphere - Global Climate Change: Changes In The Cryosphere

Question 1

What is climate change?

Answer 1

Climate change is where the composition of the atmosphere is changed. This then impacts physical and biological processes.

Question 2

What is anthropological climate change?

Answer 2

Climate change caused by humans

Question 3

What is the adverage temperature of the earth?

Answer 3

15 degrees Celsius

Question 4

What temperature would the earth be without the greenhouse effect?

Answer 4

Without the greenhouse effect to warm the earth it would be -17 degrees Celsius

Question 5

What are the 5 gases that cause the anthropogenic greenhouse effect? (What are their chemical formulas, are they naturally occurring, what’s their percentage in the atmosphere?)

Answer 5

1. Carbon dioxide CO2 - naturally occurring - 56.4%
2. Methane CH4 - naturally occurring - 16.3%
3. Chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) - produced by humans - 11.6%
4. Tropospheric ozone O3 - produced by humans - 10.2%
5. Nitrous oxide N2O - produced by humans - 5.4%

Question 6

What is atmospheric residence time?

Answer 6

Atmospheric residence time is the time a molecule lasts in the atmosphere

Question 7

What are the four consequences of climate change?

Answer 7

1. Changes to the ocean
2. Changes to the cryosphere
3. Changed to climate processes
4. Changes to ecological processes (animal and plant processes)

Question 8

What is the cryosphere?

Answer 8

Anywhere iced/frozen (glaciers)

Question 9

Climate change will cause sea levels to rise - this is due to 2 reasons:

Answer 9

1. Melting land ice (not sea ice)

2. Thermal expansion of water

Question 10

How does melting land ice cause sea levels to rise?

Answer 10

Ice will melt as land warms up. This melted ice will then flow out to the sea, increasing the volume of water in oceans.

Question 11

Why does melting sea ice not contribute to rising sea levels?

Answer 11

Sea based ice takes up 9% more space than water, therefore doesn’t contribute to sea levels rising

Question 12

How does thermal expansion of water contribute to rising sea levels?

Answer 12

As the atmosphere warms up, the sea water will also warm up and expand causing sea levels to rise. However this particular process is very slow and only surface waters will warm enough to expand

Question 13

Why does hot water expand?

Answer 13

An increase in temperature causes thewatermolecules to gain energy and move more rapidly, which results inwatermolecules that are farther apart and an increase inwatervolume.

(Whenwaterisheated, it expands, or increases in volume. Whenwaterincreases in volume, it becomes less dense)

Question 14

What happens to the cryosphere when temperatures increase?

Answer 14

The amount of snow and ice cover reduces. As snow and ice have a high albedo, the proportion of earth’s surface covered in snow will have an impact on the amount of radiation reflected back out to space. If ice melts then more radiation is absorbed by the sea becuase it has a lower albedo. This increases the waters temperature, therefore causing more ice to melt.

Question 15

What is albedo?

Answer 15

Albedo is whether a surface reflects solar radiation or absorbs it.

High albedo surfaces are white, bright and shiny
Low albedo surfaces are black, dark and dull.

Question 16

What is a glacier?

Answer 16

A body of compressed snow and ice that moves slowly with gravity down slope.

Question 17

How do glaciers work?

Answer 17

EXPLAIN
INCLUDE DIAGRAM
ADD VIDEO

Question 18

Climate change is causing a loss of ice shelves. Why is this bad?

Answer 18

Although the break up of ice shelves doesnt add to sea levels, it changes the earth’s albedo.
The sea ice is good at holding back land ice, so when sea ice melts, glaciers move to the sea more rapidly - increasing sea levels.

Question 19

How is climate change effecting the climate?

Answer 19

More heat is trapped in the atmosphere causing more evaporation of water, triggering a range of new patterns.

It is likely that some areas will experience wetter weather than normal, and some areas will be drier than normal - we don’t know the exact outcomes yet.

We do know that the JET STREAMS in the northern hemisphere are getting slower and more meandering.

Question 20

Why are slower Jet Streams bad?

Answer 20

It means weather systems sit for longer, creating prolonged drought or rainfall (flooding). This could mean there are more storm events in summer.

Question 21

A warmer atmosphere can hold more …….., and globally water vapour ……… by …% for every degree centigrade of ……..

Answer 21

A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, and globally water vapour increases by 7% for every degree centigrade of warming.

Question 22

What are the 7 different types of glacial formations?

Answer 22

1. Ice sheet
2. Ice cap
3. Ice field
4. Glacier
5. Sea ice
6. Iceberg
7. Ice shelf

Question 23

Which out the 7 different types of facial formations are the largest?

Answer 23

Ice sheets - they’re huge sheets of ice covering at least 50,000km squared. There are only 2 ice masses large enough to be called ice sheets and these are Antarctica and Greenland.

Question 24

Describe ice caps

Answer 24

These hide the topography of the land (the shape of the land) but are less than 50,000km squared in size. Ice caps can be found in Iceland.

Question 25

Describe ice fields

Answer 25

They dont hide the topography, but instead follow the shape of the land, so mountains and valleys are still clearly evident. They can be found in Norway.

Question 26

Describe glaciers

Answer 26

Glaciers are large bodies of moving ice

Question 27

Describe ice shelves

Answer 27

Ice shelves are bodies of ice floating on water but yet attached to ice on land. They are usually formed when a glacier advances and eventually grows off the land out to sea.

Question 28

Describe icebergs

Answer 28

An iceberg is any fragment of ice that makes it’s way out into a body of water

Question 29

Describe sea ice

Answer 29

Sea ice is a relatively thin section of ice that has formed when the sea freezes. It is made from saline water but turn water trapped within it is fresh water.