Chapter 11 Flashcards
What are the risk of people living by areas most affected by climate change?
rising premiums & increasing risk
Kiribati, a nation of islands in the Pacific Ocean may have to resettle, why?
rising seas levels that are regularly flooding their homes, contaminating their water & devastating their crops
Off the coast of Louisiana & coastal communities in Alaska are seeking govt aid to
resettle their populations because their lands have become uninhabitable due to the effects of climate change
Climate is
the average weather conditions for a region of Earth
Global climate
is the average weather conditions over a significant period of time for the planet as a whole.
Inventor of the thermometer Daniel Fahrenheit produced
a seal mercury thermometer that enabled weather stations to report & record the temperature acc to a standard numerical scale
What is the instrumental period?
the current era in which we have temperature records for Earths surface air temperature that are based on readings taken directly with instruments such as thermometers
The instrumental period encompasses records of temperature measurement made on land, in the ocean, and even in space. These are all used to examine long-term changes in the climate of the planet.
How do we measure the temperatures of the various layers in the atmosphere?
Weather satellites orbiting Earth have been estimating & recording temps of the various layers of the atmosphere by measuring infrared radiation that emanates from vibrating gas molecules in the air
What is SAT?
Surface Air Temperature
MAT?
MARINE AIR TEMP.
SST? WHAT DEVICE MEASURES THIS?
SEA-SURFACE WATER TEMP. ARGO FLOATS
what was one way they used to measure and analyze surface temperature b4 the instrumental period?
is to drill bore holes deep into Earth’s crust
What is geothermal gradient?
due to decaying radioactive elements that release energy and heat the crust
What is a proxy?
observable and measurable phenomenon that serves as an indirect indicator of changes in climate
What are two examples of proxies?
tree rings and coral skeleton
what can proxies help us understand?
ancient climates, or paleoclimates
What is paleoclimates?
ancient climate conditions understood through use of proxies
how do we know that During the Cretaceous Period
Polar regions were warm enough to be forested and free of ice
by the fossil evidence of plants and animals
snowball earth?
glacial sediments near the equator suggest that Earth was almost completely iced over
What is the Greenhouse Effect?
any system where a barrier causes the inflow of energy. to outpace the outflow in a way that warms the interior. Specifically, the warming effect on Earth due to atmospheric greenhouse gases that prevent radiant heat emitted from the surface from escaping into space
What is albedo?
a term scientist use to describe the reflectivity of a surface
examples of greenhouses
a) a car parked in sunlight will heat up as the sunlight penetrates the windows and the heat can only escape slowly from the inside
b) a greenhouse creates a warm environment for plants, as sunlight passes through the glass it warms the interior. much of the heat that is reradiated from the ground, plants and soil inside reflected back by the glass and trapped inside
What are greenhouse gases?
a gas in the atmosphere that redirects heat rising from Earth’s surface back toward the surface, cause a warming effect
Ocean Currents
can alter the distribution of heat throughout the ocean
Continental Drift
can cause large landmasses to form, creating regions where cold temperatures can develop in the winter
Earths Orbit
can affect climate by altering the amount of radiation reaching Earth and distribution of energy at various latitudes
