Climate Change Flashcards
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather is just hings like the state of the weather, or the current temperature. Climate is the average weather conditions that occur over an area over a minimum of 30 years.
What are the four main factors that affect climate?
Latitude, elevation, the air masses that flow over the area, and the area’s nearness to large bodies of water.
What is the biosphere?
It’s the relatively thin layer of earth that is capable of supporting life.
What are the major gases found in the atmosphere, and how much of each is there?
Nitrogen (78.08%) and oxygen (20.95%). The rest is made up of other gases (0.97%)
What are the two types of particle found in the atmosphere, and what are some examples of each?
Abiotic and biotic, and examples include soil particles and soot (abiotic), and pollen and micro organisms?
What is smog?
A compound word of smoke+fog. It occurs when soot particles combine with car exhaust.
What are the four layers of the atmosphere?
The troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere.
Where does weather take place in the atmosphere?
The troposphere.
Where is most of the ozone contained within the atmosphere?
The stratosphere.
What is the lithosphere?
The area of rock that extends from the crust down to the solid part of the upper mantle.
How thick is the lithosphere?
5 km under oceans, to 100km under continents.
Why do mountains affect climate?
The side the wind blows onto condenses water from the air, and the leeward side typically is dry.
What is the hydrosphere?
The hydrosphere includes ALL OF THE WATER ON EARTH.
How much of water on earth is either salt water or freshwater?
97% is saltwater, whereas the other 3% is freshwater. Not a lot comparatively speaking. And even then a ton of that is stored within glaciers that are melting and mixing with saltwater, sooooo….
