Part 2

Question 1

What is thermohaline circulation?

Answer 1

Movement of ocean water caused by density difference brought about by variations in temp (thermo) and salinity (haline). As ocean water freezes at the poles it concentrates salt, and the colder, denser water sinks.

Question 2

What is the main driver of thermal circulation?

Answer 2

Deep water currents, difference in the waters density.

Question 3

What is the tropical cyclone heat transfer mechanism?

Answer 3

Heat transfer occurs mainly in the form of latent heat, strongly influenced by sea surface ocean temperature, high level winds, wind shear, and coriolis force.

Question 4

what is latent heat?

Answer 4

latent heat of melting and vaporization: the energy needed to accomplish phase transition or the heat required to convert a solid into a liquid or vapor, or liquid into vapor, without a change in temperature.

Question 5

what causes monsoons?

Answer 5

-Seasonal reversing wind
-Draw tropical energy to higher latitudes
-Affect global atmospheric circulation

Question 6

what are the characteristics of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Positives and Negative:

Answer 6

-Affects flow of energy across polar front
-Has impacts across Northern Hemisphere
-Changes positions of the polar jet stream

Question 7

El Nino Southern Oscillation:
what is it?
what happens in the pacific region?
impact on the US?

Answer 7

-Anomalous climatic events, occur every 3-7 years
-coupled interaction between ocean and atmosphere in the tropical pacific
-collapse of southeast trade winds
-surface warm pool in western pacific move eastward
-upwelling shuts down off west coast of south America
-Unusually dry periods in some regions
-Higher than normal rainfall in other regions

Question 8

what is the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and its features?

Answer 8

PDO: Pacific Decadal Oscillation
-Affects global temperature
-Global warming cannot predict PDO
-Similarities to ENSO, but much longer time scale (20-30years)

Question 9

what is the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and its features?

Answer 9

-Sea surface temp. anomaly oscillation in the north Atlantic
-estimated period of 60-80yrs
-possible connection to strength of the thermohaline circulation
-somewhat controversial, also the potential link to hurricane frequency

Question 10

what are tropical cyclones?

Answer 10

Low-pressure systems that push water up. form over large bodies of relatively warm water. They derive thier energy through the evaporation of water form the oceans surface, which ultimately condenses into clouds and rain when moist air rises and cools to saturation

Question 11

what are NADW and AABW

Answer 11

-North Atlantic Deep Water
-Antarctic Bottom Water

Question 12

what are isotopes?

Answer 12

atoms of the same element with different number of neutrons

Question 13

what is radiative forcing?

Answer 13

an imbalance between earths incoming and outgoing radiation

Question 14

what is global dimming?

Answer 14

global dimming is the reduction in the amount of global direct irradiance at the earths surface that has been observed since the systematic measurements began in the 1950s

Question 15

resulting heat uptake of ocean vs atmosphere?

Answer 15

oceans have absorbed 90% of excess energy. ocean circulation is not global/confined to one hemisphere.

Question 16

what is meridional heat transport?

Answer 16

heat transport across latitudes prevents tropics from heating up and poles from cooling down.

Question 17

what makes greenhouse gases different from the main constituents of the atmosphere?

Answer 17

-electric dipole moment is critical for interaction with electromagnetic radiation
-different absorption spectra for different gases

Question 18

what causes radiative forcing?

Answer 18

the change in concentration of carbon dioxide or the output of the sun

Question 19

what is the difference between climate sensitivity and radiative forcing?

Answer 19

a measure of how much earths surface will cool or warm after a specified factor causes a change in its climate system

Question 20

greenhouse effect:

Answer 20

some greenhouse gases allows for less heat to be trapped in the atmosphere and causes more heat to escape into space

Question 21

what does the observed stratospheric cooling indicate?

Answer 21

ozone is being depleted and an increase of CO2 in the troposphere

Question 22

Approximate Total Anthropogenic Forcing:

Answer 22

-48% abosrbed into the surface
-29% is reflected
-23% is absorbed into the atomosphere

Question 23

enhanced greenhouse effect:

Answer 23

more greenhouse gases allows for more heat to be trapped in the atmosphere and causes less heat to escape into space

Question 24

what is the evidence for anthropogenic activities being the main source of atmospheric CO2 increase?

Answer 24

economic data, carbon isotype data, and change in oxygen-to-nitrogen ratio in atmosphere.

Question 25

what can be derived from atmospheric carbon isotope studies in this context?

Answer 25

-plants and algae are depleted in d13c
-atmospheric CO2 is also depleted in d123c

Question 26

carbon reservoirs in the earths system and relative sizes:

Answer 26

-ocean is the biggest carbon pool
-land is the second biggest carbon pool
-atmosphere is the smallest carbon pool

Question 27

sources of anthropogenic carbon:

Answer 27

-fossil carbon
-land use charge
-ocean sink
-land sink
-atmosphere

Question 28

latitudes with dry and wet conditions:

Answer 28

-descending limbs of hadley cells are the sites of the worlds major desserts
-descending air warms adiabatrically and thus is dry because warm air can hold more moisture.

Question 29

coriolos effect, and impact on flowing air and water

Answer 29

-deflection of air or water by earths rotation, deflection in the Northern hemisphere to the right, deflection in the southern hemisphere to the left

Question 30

what are jet streams and ITCZ

Answer 30

polar jet streams dominate mid-latitude weather: fast upper level winds form at the boundary between cold and dense polar air and warm moist subtropical air

ITCZ is the inter tropical convergence zone

Question 31

what are examples of rapid fluxes in the earths system?

Answer 31

photosynthesis and respiration

Question 32

unequal heating of the earths surface, resulting in temperature gradient, energy imbalance between low and high latitudes:

Answer 32

CO2 dissolve in water and reacts to form carbon acid

CO2 addition to seawater lowers pH value

Question 33

how do phase transitions of water within the hydrological cycle contribute to energy transfer in the climate system?

Answer 33

the process of melting, evaporation and sublimation absorb energy. this added energy causes the molecules to change their bonding pattern. in the earth system, this energy must be supplied by the surrounding environment. thus, these phase changes result in cooling of the surrounding environment.

Question 34

what is special about what specific heat?

Answer 34

water has a high specific heat, meaning it takes more energy to increase the temperature if water compared to other substances.

Question 35

surface ocean circulation?

Answer 35

ocean surface currents are strongly affected by surface winds, the earths rotation, and the position of the continents.

Question 36

Gyres

Answer 36

Five major rotating systems:
North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the North Pacific Gyre, the South Pacific Gyre, and the Indian Ocean Gyre—that have a significant impact on the ocean. The big five help drive the so-called oceanic conveyor belt that helps circulate ocean waters around the globe.

they form in large ocean basins, and they transfer and release heat energy. three forces cause circulation of gyres winds: global winds patterns, earth rotation and earths land masses

Question 37

warm currents vs cold currents

Answer 37

warm ocean currents originate near the equator and move toward the poles or higher latitudes while cold currents originate near the poles or high latitudes and move toward the tropics or lower latitudes.

Question 38

tropical divergence

Answer 38

the upper layers of the ocean diverging at the equator and drawing cooler, nutrient rich water towards the surface because of the impact of the surface winds.

Question 39

characteristics of the gulf stream

Answer 39

a powerful, warm, swift Atlantic ocean current that originated at the tip of Florida and follows the eastern coastlines of the united states. It is largely driven by wind stress

Question 40

characteristics of the circumpolar current

Answer 40

-eastward flow around antartica
-strongest ocean current (more than 100 sv)
-winds create a divergence at the surface
-deep water is mixed to the surface

Question 41

temperature and salinity distribution in surface ocean waters:

Answer 41

at mid-latitudes, salinity influences the depth to which water masses sink and how far they extend through the ocean