Lecture 2: Variation Flashcards
What drives the climate cycle?
The sun
What cycle is not driven by the sun?
Deep sea life.
What kind of star is ours?
White dwarf
How old is our Sol?
4.6 billion years old
How long dose it take for light to go from the sun to earth?
8 secounds
How much energy hits the earth?
340.4 watts/min at any location on earth.
How much energy is absorbed by the atmosphere?
77.1 watts/min
How much energy is reflected by the clouds and atmosphere?
77.0 watts/min
How much energy is reflected by the surface?
22.9 watts/min
is the amount of solar energy hitting the earth uniform?
No, earth is on a 23* axis so we have an uneven distribution of solar energy.
What causes seasons?
How far earth is from the sin
What is the periapsis
When the earth is closest to the sun
What happens when you are in Apoapsis?
The earth is furthest from the sun.
Periapsis in the southern hemisphere is…
Summer
How long is one earth orbit?
365.4 days
Why is the equator warmer
The route sunlight has to take is shorter and spread out over a more narrow surface.
What is the cause of the longer distance of light having to travel in the north and south?
The solar angel of instadence.
What is the result of the Solar Angle of Incidence?
Uneven warming of the planet.
What happens to temperature as you go higher up on the planet?`
It will be cooler the higher up you go than at the base.
What makes it colder at the top of the mountain than at the bottom?
The amount of pressure in the upper atmosphere is far lower than what seen at sea level.
Fewer molecules per given area that are moving far apart
What is adiabatic lapse rate?
The amount of heat given off by molecules
it is variable as a function of how much moisture is in the air
When you are in a humid environment what happens as you go higher up in elevation?
You lose a lot more heat that in a arid environment. `
10C per Km in wet
6 per Km in dry air
What is a rain shadow?
at the coast there is warm moist air being blown up the side of a moutian where it decreases in pressure and cools.
it then condenses and falls on the “wind” side of the moutian.
The air then continues over the mountain as dry air, making a rain shadow of dry cold air.
Windward side of mountains tend to be_____
wetter
True or false:
Edmonton is in a rain shadow:
true
What causes rain shadows?
Mountains.
What drives circulation of air on the planet?
The sun heating the air, and hot air rising, while cool air falls.
What happens when air begins to cool and condense?
You get rain.
Where do we find most of the worlds major desserts?
At 30 Degrees latitude on either side of the Equator
What are the cells of air circulation from the equator to the poles called?
They care called Hadley cells.
What is a polar cell?
A air flow at 60 degrees north that has warm air coming from the south and cool air coming from the north. `
What is a ferrel cell?
less stable than the polar or hadley cell.
They occur at mid-latitude locations and travel in opposite directions.
What direction dose the planet rotate?
east to west
What is the Coriolis effect?
What drives the major wind directions in the northern and southern hemispheres
What happens in the northern Hemisphere as in respect to the Coriolis effect?
Apparent deflection of winds to the right of their direction of travel (clockwise)
- this causes storms to spin counterclockwise
What happens in the southern Hemisphere as in respect to the Coriolis effect?
- Apparent deflection of Winds to the left of their direction of travel (Counterclockwise)
- This causes storms to spin clockwise
