Global Radiative Energy Imbalance Flashcards
What is a joule?
A metric unit for energy.
What is a watt
Watt is the metric unit for power which is the rate of energy.
When is ‘watts per square metre’ most commonly used?
On climate energy budgets
What decreases the affects of solar radiation on the earth?
The rotation of the earth spreads the solar radiation evenly across a larger surface.
What happens if there is more energy entering the earth’s climate system than leaving it?
It receives more energy than it loses.
What does the accumulated extra energy go when earth is imbalanced?
Mostly heating the oceans and melting ice sheets and heating the land.
Energy imbalance cannot persist indefinitely. What occurs to fix this?
A new energy balance is achieved. As the heat content of the earth increases, the air, ocean and land temperatures increase and which increases the amount of terrestrial infrared radiation escaping to space.
What is a ‘heat capacity’?
The amount of heat a system can handle. Large systems given the same amount of heat as a small system will notice changes more slowly.
When there is more net incoming solar energy than outgoing terrestrial, where does the extra heat get put?
Heating the oceans 94%
Melting ice sheets and glaciers 3%
heating the land and subsurface 3%
Why are the poles cold?
Uneven distribution of solar radiation at the surface of the sphere. Radiation focused on the equator.
What are the two main climate regimes?
Tropical and subtropical
Extra-tropical
What is a monsoon?
A seasonally varying rainfall caused by rising air over land, causing cloud development and precipitation. The circulation reverses in the winter.
What is the world’s largest monsoon?
The asian monsoon.
What is the thermohaline circulation?
A deep 3D circulation that slowly transports heat, water and salinity. It is caused by ocean water density differences that in turn are determined by temperature and salinity differences.
