Chapter 9 Flashcards
What happens to evaporation as greenhouse gases and surface temperatures increase?
increased rate of evaporation at the surface
What do evaporation and precipitation do?
balance each other out
What is the global climate model?
computer program that simulates Earth’s climate to model interactions between atmosphere, ocean, and land
What are parameterizations?
relate small scale processes that models can’t simulate and can simulate
What is nuisance flooding?
higher seas lead to more frequent high-tide flooding
What is a storm surge?
wall of water that storm blows onto shore
What is an extreme-event attribution?
the science of detecting whether manmade global warming was a cause
What does non-linear mean?
things don’t get progressively worse in a predictable, straight line
What is abrupt climate change?
sudden and significant drift in some aspects of the climate on human time scales due to human forcings of the climate
What is the time frame for something to be considered an abrupt climate change?
has to occur on the time scales of decades
What are the 5 physical impacts of climate change?
temperature, sea levels rising, precipitation, ocean acidification, hurricanes
