Lecture 1 Flashcards
What are the internal interactions of the climate system?
Atmosphere, vegetation, ice, ocean, land surface
With a climate policy, how much is climate estimated to increase?
2 degrees
How far away is the sun from the earth?
Approximately 150 million km
What size is an average sunspot area?
5x bigger than earth
How hot is the sun at its core?
15 million degrees
Which is hotter, the Suns surface or the Suns atmosphere (the corona)?
The corona, due to low density therefore emits less energy into space
Does the 11 year sunspot activity have a large or small impact on solar energy output?
Measurable, but small
On the electromagnetic spectrum, which radiation type has the longest wavelength?
Radio
On the electromagnetic spectrum, which wavelength has the shortest wavelength?
Gamma ray
Radiation is…
Energy that travels
What does the ‘energy flux density’ equation look at?
Looks at how much radiation travels through a square area, when looking at the sun and earth
What is Planck’s Law?
- every object with a temp T > 0K emits electromagnetic energy
(0K = 273.15 degrees c)
What is a ‘black body’?
Idealised object that absorbs and emits electromagnetic radiation over all wavelengths. At room temp, such a body looks black to our eyes.
What does the Stefan-Boltzmann law say?
If the substance in an ideal emitter (a black body) the amount of radiation given off is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature.
What does the Wien’s displacement law determine?
- the wavelength of the peak of the Planck distribution curve
- as the substances get hotter, the wavelength at which radiation is emitted will become shorter
