Natural Climate Change Flashcards
What is the first Milankovitch cycle? What does it do? How does it affect global climate? (e)
-Eccentricity
-Varying elliptical shape of earths orbit changes due to gravitational pull, causes seasons depending how close the earth is to sun
-Effects global climate by changing our distance from the sun making some seasons (summer) longer
What is the second Milankovitch cycle? What does it do? How does it effect global climate?
-Obliquity
-Earth axis tilt changes over cycle- min- 22.1 (less severe seasons), max- 24.5 (more severe seasons)
-effects global climate by changing sunlight amounts hitting different parts of the earth. which strongly affects the earth
- Because of the slight degree changes in the tilt some days are a little longer than others
What is the third Milankovitch cycle? What does it do? How does it effect the global climate?
-Precession/Wobble
-Earth axis direction changes over time- earth wobbles like top, things change
-The earth spins and so different areas receive different amounts of sunlight and that results in different temperatures causing the climate to heat up or cool down-
What are sunspots? How do they effect the climate?
-Sun spots are indicator for natural climate change!!
-These are dark spots on the sun indicating that there is more solar radiation
-Which means more energy which helps light reach the earth and warm it.
-The number of sunspots goes up and the amount of energy hitting the earth increases
Explain the volcanic activity and how it affects the climate…
-When volcanos erupt, they let out gases and particles into the atmosphere
-These gases and particles block the sunlight and cool the atmosphere.
Explain the Vostok Ice Cores and the information that can be found studying them…
-The cores trap gases as they form
-Samples Can be extracted from them
-shows c02 concentrations from an ancient atmosphere that we can compare to levels of c02 now
-Can help tell scientists what things have changed
Explain what Glacial and Interglacial Time Periods are…
-Glacial is an ice age (happens when earth is tilted 24.5, maximum squish, and the wobble makes it so its winter when we are farthest from the sun making us move slower)
-Interglacial is a warm period
- All the things that warm the earth would cause an ice age if we didn’t have it
What is the Carbon Cycle?
a process that carbon is exchanged throughout our atmosphere
What are the Carbon Cycle storage/sinks? there are 8
-Plants
-Soil
-Atmosphere
-Surface Ocean
-Deep Ocean
-Marine Bio
-Fossil Fuels
-Rocks
What are the exchanges (fluxes) in the Carbon Cycle? there are 7
-Diffusion: atm-ocean
-Respiration: mb-ocean, plants-atm
-Decomposition: plants-soil, mb-atm/water
-Photosynthesis: atm-plants
-Burial: deep ocean-rock, marine bio algae-FF, terrestrial plants-FF
-Erosion: rocks-atm AND ocean
-Volcanic eruptions: rocks-atm
What is the Greenhouse Effect?
-a 100% naturally occurring process
-insolation/short wave radiation from the sun comes in
-some is reflected, some is absorbed
-the absorbed gets converted to heat/IR (long wave)
and is then radiated (reemitted)
What are the greenhouse gases? there are 6
-water
-co2
-methane
-nitrous oxide
-ozone
-chlorofluorocarbons
trap energy in the atmosphere and retain heat
What is the earths energy budget?
-the amount of energy available to heat the earth’s land, water, and air
-30% of sun energy is reflected by clouds,
-20% absorbed by atmosphere, -50% absorbed at surface and radiates out long wave radiation
Explain what insolation is…
solar radiation from the sun that interacts with our atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. (short wave)
Explain what Albedo is…
-albedo is the amount of light reflected off a surface
-The higher the albedo, or more light reflected, the cooler the area will be, and vise versa
