Chapter 9: Climate Flashcards
Name the major gases and other materials that compose the atmosphere and the approximate percent of each.
Nitrogen: 78%
Oxygen: 21%
Argon: 0.93%
Carbon dioxide: 0.04%
Name the 4 layers of the atmosphere and an identifying characteristic of each layer.
Troposphere -11miles -weather daily changes of temperature, wind precipitation -convention currents move heat and moisture Stratosphere -11 to 33 miles -very little water vapor -1,000 times more ozone -filters out UV B Mesosphere -cool 30 to 54 miles Thermosphere -hot 55 miles -electrically charged gases -aurora borealis, aurora Australia
Why does the intensity and amount of solar radiation vary around the earth?
Because of the surfaces reflectivity of solar radiation.
What is albedo and identify two high albedo and two low albedo surfaces.
A description of a surfaces reflective properties.
High albedo: fresh snow and dense clouds
Low albedo: water (sun overhead) and dark soil
What is the idea underlying the stabilization wedges suggested by pacala and socolow at Princeton?
Divide emissions into 14 wedges=1gt each of carbon emissions avoided.
What is greenhouse effect?
Trapping of heat by the earths atmosphere, which is transparent to incoming visible light waves but absorbs outgoing longwave infrared radiation.
How does greenhouse effect work?
Suns absorbed energy gradually reemitted by earth as lower-quality heat energy.
What have we learned from ice cores?
Ice cores are tiny bubbles in snow layers at poles. We test the air bubbles samples and we observe atmosphere change over time, ratios of O2 vs CO2.
What are milankovitch cycles?
Periodic variations in tilt, eccentricity and wobble in the earths orbits; milutin milankovitch suggested these are responsible for cyclic weather changes.
What is the IPCC?
(Intergovernmental panel on climate change): a large group of scientists from many nations and a wide variety of fields assembled by the United Nations environment program and world meteorological organization to assess the current state of knowledge about climate change.
What are some reasonable effects of global climate change on the ecology of 2 different habitats or biomes?
Ice cores and soil cores
Which gas or gases, human activity and country make the largest contribution to global warming?
CO2 from fossil fuel use in China.
What three pieces of evidence support the statement that recent climate changes are caused by human activity?
Global temperature rise 0.6’c, fossil fuel use and forest clearing.
Why do people disagree about the evidence for climate change?
Because scientists can be wrong, climate change is due to natural cycles, not human behavior.
Know the concentration of CO2 gas in the atmosphere (ppm) from 1950 to the present.
The atmosphere rises from 305 to nearly 400.
