Climate Change Flashcards
Insolation/Short-wave radiation
Incoming solar radiation is the main energy input.
Long-wave radiation
Radiation of energy from the earth being output to the atmosphere and space. There is also some long-wave radiation being absorbed back into the atmosphere.
Convection
Transfer of heat by movement of gas or liquid.
Conduction
the transfer of heat by contact.
Greenhouse effect
The process by which certain gases allow insolation to pass through the atmosphere, but trap outgoing long-wave radiation. This results in warming.
Enhanced greenhouse effect
The impact of increasing levels of greenhouse gases as a result of human activities.
Troposphere
Most weather processes take place here, fall in temperature with height as the atmosphere thins.
Stratosphere
lacks dust and water vapor, stable, thin, increase in temperature with height is due to absorption of solar radiation.
Mesosphere
Temperatures decrease because decreasing density prevents the absorption of energy.
Thermosphere
A virtual vacuu, rise in absorbed energy to due energised short-wave radiation.
Feedback loops
Feedback mechanisms control the Earth’s atmosphere, and changes to feedback loops cause implications for the climate and temperature.
Positive Feedback - Ice caps
Melting of the polar ice caps results in less ice and less albedo and thus lowers solar energy that is absorbed by the earth’s surface, leading to increase in temperature.
Negative Feedback - aerosols
Burning, leading to more aerosols (suspension of liquid droplets in the air) and thus reduced solar radiation at the surface, causing cooling
Risk
probability of climate change impacting a country
Vulnerability
the susceptibility to damage from a climate change disaster
