atmosphere Flashcards
when was the Apollo 11 taken
1969
who started the environmental movement in the USA
Rachel Carson
book = Silent Spring
does red or blue light have longer wavelength
red
how does the the outgoing long-wave (heat) radiation differ from the incoming short-wave (solar) radiation in tropical and polar regions
- tropical = outgoing long-wave radiation < incoming short-wave radiation
- polar = outgoing long-wave radiation > incoming short-wave radiation
how is heat tranfered from the equator to the poles
BY THE CIRCULATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE
OCEAN WINDS AND CURRENTS
Two factors shape the winds and currents
1 The uneven heating of the earth
2 The Coriolis Force caused by the earth’s rotation - affects FLUIDS in FRICTIONLESS environments
*The CF gets “stronger” poleward
how does air circulate
Hot air rises, cools and sinks
- but the spinning earth creates a Coriolis effect
- wind belts:
From 0-30 easterly trades
30-60 westerly winds
60-90 polar easterly
what 2 things change the density of ocean water
- Temperature -> warm water less dense
- Salinity water -> more dense
*THERMOHALINE CIRCULATION
what does the ocean conveyor belt do
- transports heat from the tropics to higher latitudes
- Oxygenates the Deep Sea
how long does it take for the ocean conveyor belt to mix the ocean
1000 year time scale
what is retrograde solubility
More dissolve in COLD water
a kind of ocean convey belt and what it does exactly
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)
- brings Heat to the Eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean -> Europe
oceans thermohaline cycle characteristics
- Slow circulation of the deep ocean
- Driven by density differences (not wind)
- Dense water (cold & salty) sinks in polar regions
- Replaced by upwelling in other regions of the world
3 Boxes of Sea water
Coastal, Photic Zone and Deep
upper 500m characteristics of the ocean
Sunlit autotrophic
Shell formation
Photosynthesis dominates
Oxygen production
Particle formation = Carbon fixation
Wind driven circulation
lower 500m characteristics of the ocean
Deep heterotrophic
Dark
Shell dissolution
Respiration dominates
Particle Decomposition = Remineralization
Density driven circulation (thermohaline)
what is particle flux
Sinking phytoplankton Zooplankton fecal pellets
what is Nature’s N-cycle and its 4 steps
a series of redox (electron transfer) reactions
1. N fixation: consume energy (N2 -> organic N)
2. Mineralization: yield energy (organic N -> ammonia)
3. Nitrification: yield energy (ammonia -> nitrate)
4. Denitrification: yield energy (nitrate -> N2)
which nitrogen cycle step has been most effected by human activity
nitrogen fixation - tripled it
4 reservoirs of surface earth
- Lithosphere (crust)
- Hydrosphere (Ocean)
- Atmosphere Least dense, less mass - EASIEST to CHANGE
- Biosphere (living things on earth)
what was the co2 ppm in the warmer world (Cretaceous), glacial period, preindustrial and today
1200ppm Cretaceous period
180 ppm glacial
280 ppm preindustrial
420 ppm today
what will co2 levels be like in 2100
700ppm
what do you call the ice ages and the period between them
Pleistocene (last 2 million years) - the ICE ages
Holocene (last 20,000 years) - started with the last glacial melt
*SEA LEVEL rose 100 meters in the holocene as the glaciers melted
what drove the cycle in the Pleistocene climate
small variations in the earth’s orbit around the sun on a 100,000 year time scale
- Circular periods = interglacial
- Egg shaped orbit = glacial
which part of the ocean do CFCs sink in and why
North Atlantic - water sinks and carries them with it
what percentage of the ocean is the photic zone
10%
what marked the rapid uplift of the Himalayas
India moved and rammed into Asia
what processes transfers carbon to the atmosphere
seafloor subduction + volcanism
what process takes up carbon from the atmosphere
Mountain building and weathering
