Practice test questions Flashcards
what is the equation for climate sensativity
Radiative forcing/ feedback parameter
what happens to sea surface temperature and precipitation in a positive el nino oscillation
postive ENSO means warmer than average sst over the tropical east pacific
colder than average over the west pacific
precipitation follows the warmest waters so it shifts east - away from the west pacific
why is venus so much hotter than mercury even though it is further away from the sun
the atmosphere is mostly CO2, meaning that the GHG effect is very strong, venus is hotter than mercury because the GHG effect is stronger despite receiving less solar energy than mercury
why is the equilibrium climate sensitivity always higher than the transient climate response?
ECS and TCR measure the amount of global warming for a doubling of CO2
ECS measures the warming at equilibrium - i.e. once the system has had time to fully adjust to a constant 2x Co2 forcing
TCR measures the warming right after reaching 2x Co2
ECS is a higher value than TCR because the ocean takes centuries to warm owing to its large depth and heat capacity
define a paleoproxy and list two examples
a paleoproxy is an indirect piece of evidence about past climate conditions
paleoproxies are used to reconstruct past cliamtes, where direct measurements of climate do not exist
eg. tree rings widths, oxygen isotope rations, fossilised pollen, sediments etc.
what is meant by parameterisation in a climate model? given 2x samples of a parameterised process
a climate model parameterisation is a simplified representation of a physical process. parameterizations are needed because models cannot resolve processes on small temporal or spatial scales. some possible examples of parameterised processes include clouds, radiative transfer, surface drag, ocean mixing, convection etc.
