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Environmental Science > The atmosphere > Flashcards

The atmosphere Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the layers of the atmosphere increasing in density?

A

Thermosphere
Mesosphere
Stratosphere
Troposphere
Least Dense

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2
Q

What is nuclear fusion?

A

Two large isotopes of hydrogen fusing to form helium

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3
Q

What are the global warming potentials of CFCs, CO2 and CH4

A

CFCs x25000
CO2 x1
CH4 x25

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4
Q

What is the atmosphere/

A

A thin layer of gases surrounding the earth, held in place by gravity.

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5
Q

Why is the atmosphere essential for life on earth?

A

Provides gases for natural processes.
Upper atmosphere absorbs UV, near infrared and visible light radiation.
Aids transfer of water around the plant

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6
Q

What is in the stratosphere?

A

The ozone, formed from O, O2 and O3

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7
Q

What does the ozone do?

A

Prevents damaging solar wind/UV radiation from reaching earth by absorbing it in the various forms of oxygen.

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8
Q

What happens to the UV light absorbed by the ozone?

A

It is converted to heat and re-emitted as infrared energy.
Atmospheric gases absorb the infrared energy which increases the temperature of the atmosphere.
The atmosphere emits the infrared energy which is absorbed by earths surface/troposphere.

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9
Q

How is heat distributed around the planet?

A

Warm surface of earth heats the atmosphere above it and the heat is distributed to higher latitudes by winds

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10
Q

How are ocean currents produced and what do they move?

A

Winds blowing over the oceans creates currents.
The currents distribute heat by carrying warm water from tropical areas to colder areas.

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11
Q

What does atmospheric pressure control?

A

Controls the ease in which water can evaporate.
Lower pressure means easier evaporation

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12
Q

What radiation leaves the earth?

A

Long wave and far infrared radiation

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13
Q

What are some greenhouse gases?

A

CO2, water vapour, CH4, NOx, CFCs

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14
Q

What are some human activities that increase green house gases?

A

Combustion of fossil fuels, wood, ploughing soils increases, aerobic respiration CO2.
Anaerobic respiration in rice padi fields/livestock intestines increases methane.
O2 and N2 reacting at high temps and pressure in power stations/engines increases NOx
CFCs, aerosols

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15
Q

How is ozone produced?

A

Oxygen molecules absorb uv light which forms monotomic oxygen, monotomic oxygen and diatomic oxygen react to produce triatomic oxygen

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16
Q

What are enhanced greenhouse gases?

A

Gases that are better at absorbing infrared radiation therefore warming the atmosphere

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17
Q

What are some impacts of global climate change?

A

Sea level rise
Animal hibernation shorter
Animals migrating to colder areas
Shorter or longer rainfall periods
Bleaching of oceans
Increased competition between species for food
Ocean current changes
Wind pattern changes
Changes to the cyrosphere

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18
Q

What are jet streams?

A

Strong winds that blow from west to east along the upper troposphere, they control the movement of rain
Caused by the difference in temp/density between air masses

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19
Q

Why do jet streams not blow in a straight line?

A

Because the rotation of earth produces a coriolis force which causes winds to blow in a spiral fashion

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20
Q

What is happening to jet streams in the northern hemisphere?

A

They are moving more slowly in a more meandering path towards the equator because there is a smaller temperature different.
basically temps in the north are warming which makes them more similar to temps at the equator so there is less different causing wind to move slower

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21
Q

What are rossby waves?

A

Waves that are created by meandering winds, they carry cold air south and warm air north

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22
Q

How will GCC change rainfall patterns?

A

Increased temps will increase evaporation so more precipitation.
Air carrying water vapour may have to move to colder areas to allow it to cool enough to condense and fall as rain.
Changes in wind patterns may cause increased rainfall in one area but less in another.

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23
Q

How will GCC change snowfall

A

Reduction in the amount and duration of snow, less snow means less albedo so less reflection more absorption.
Increased precipitation from increased evaporation may increase snowfall

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24
Q

How will GCC change the movement of ice?

A

The front of glaciers may melt faster than it moves forward so it will retreat up the valley.
Meltwater can flow underneath a glacier lubricating it making it move faster.

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25
Q

What is an ice sheet?

A

Ice covering a large area e.g. greenland

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26
Q

What is an ice cap?

A

Ice covering a small area

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27
Q

What is GCC doing to ice sheets and caps?

A

Changing their thickness and movements

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28
Q

Why doesn’t the melting of ice shelves cause sea rise?

A

Ice shelves that break up do not directly cause a rise in sea level bc they have already displaced water.

29
Q

What is the danger of melting ice/snow?

A

Ice and snow have high albedos so the melting of them will reduce the albedo, more absorption of energy which warms the surface/atmosphere so more ice melts.

30
Q

What is the thermal expansion of water?

A

When seawater is warmed it expands causing the sea level to rise. However bc water has a high SHC it takes awhile.

31
Q

What is the gulf stream?

A

The north atlantic conveyor

32
Q

How does the gulf stream work?

A

Friction with prevailing winds blowing over the ocean from the south west to the north east causes water to flow in the same direction.
Water at the north east sinks as it cools and becomes denser, drawing water back in to replace it.

33
Q

How is GCC affecting the gulf stream?

A

Ice in the north east is melting which dilutes the water/makes it less saline. The diluted water is less dense so it is less likely to sink, this reduces the flow of the water current as there is less water needed to replace what hasn’t sunk.

34
Q

How do the trade winds work in a normal year?

A

Trade winds blow from east pacific to south america westwards, brining a current with them.
This current upwells nutrient rich water from deep ocean causing algal blooms, feeding food webs.
The winds affect precipitation patterns, if the current by the coast is cold then water vapour in winds will cool and condense before reaching land.
If the current is warm, water vapour will cool and condense over the land

35
Q

How does the wind pattern occur in a el nino year?

A

Trade winds are reversed blowing from south america to east pacific or the winds are slowed down.
This causes food webs in south america to collapse as no nutrients being upwelled.
The temperature of water will increase in south america, increased precipitation will also cause flooding.
Atmospheric temperatures decrease in south America and increase in western Australia.

36
Q

What can el nino cause?

A

Less cyclones in japan
less hurricanes in north atlantic

37
Q

When does el nino occur?

A

every 1-2 yrs

38
Q

What is la nina?

A

Stronger trade winds blowing from east pacific to west pacific
Causes faster currents and a higher temp different between east and west pacific

39
Q

How can climate change affect human health?

A

Higher temperatures will push some areas humans live in out of the range of tolerance.
Pathogen vectors may change their distribution, malaria more common
‘Heat island’ affect where dark surfaces absorb light and heat emissions causing extreme heatwaves
Water supplies depleted, droughts, floods

40
Q

How will climate change affect crops?

A

Affects where they can be grown
Pest survival more common with warmer winters so they will do more harm to crops in next growing season

41
Q

How does climate change cause problems in infastructure?

A

Heat causes tar in roads to melt and deform
Train tracks buckle due to them stretching from heat.
Drainage needs to be improved
Landslides more common due to heavy rainfall and deforestation

42
Q

Why is climate change hard to predict?

A

Timescale, needs to be monitored long term to see correlation
Individual changes hard to predict
Natural fluctuations
Spatial scales, e.g. local changes
Interconnected systems, e.g. jetstream changes increasing temps, gh gases increasing temp
Time delay, e.g. oceans take awhile to heat up due to high SHC but atmosphere warms fast.

43
Q

How can climate data be collected?

A

Historic data from ship logs, farm logs etc
Proxy data from pollen, tree rings
Satellite data using LEO collecting data of wind, temp etc over whole earth
Ocean currents using argo floats
Computer models

44
Q

How do argo floats work?

A

Float programmed to sink for set amount of days where it records salinity and temperature.
It will rise and drift to the surface where data is transmitted to a satellite, argo float sinks again.

45
Q

How do computer models work?

A

Give a more accurate estimation by inputting older data to estimate for future years.
If the predictions were similar to what actually happened model can be trusted.
Accuracy can be increased by adding more data

46
Q

What is negative feedback and give an example

A

Reduces the size of the original change, they are positive.
High temps increases photosynthesis so more CO2 removed from atmosphere, reducing the temps

47
Q

What is positive feedback and give an example

A

Increases the size of the original change, they are negative
Co2 in atmosphere dissolves in oceans to carbonic acid, oceans become more acidic. Coral survival is reduced so less carbon sequestration, more CO2 in atmosphere.

48
Q

What is a tipping point?

A

Human changes causing changes in natural processes to the extent that the human changes are no longer needed for the change to continue.
Changes cannot be stopped/irreversible

49
Q

Give a tipping point example

A

CO2 in the atmosphere, causes forest fires so more CO2, land and snow melting so more CO2

50
Q

What is CCS?

A

Carbon capture storage, where CO2 produced by humans is stored in depleted aquifers, gas fields etc

51
Q

Give examples of geoengineering

A

Painting roofs and buildings white to increase their albedo
Solar shades in orbit to reduce insolation

52
Q

What can humans do to help stop climate change?

A

Changes to lifestyle: recycling, reusing, public transport, vegan, buy local.
Infrastructure: coastal defences like high river banks or houses on stilts, sea walls, replacing concrete with gravel more permeable, river flow management, solar panels, improving public transport.
Land use: afforestation, certain crops grown to stop drought

53
Q

What happens to UV not absorbed?

A

It reaches the earth and damage living organisms, skin cancer, cataracts, leaf tissue damage, reduced photosynthesis.

54
Q

Why were CFCs used?

A

Non toxic
non flammable
dissolves grease without damaging electrics

54
Q

Why are CFCs not sustainable?

A

High persistance/chemically stable
CFCs absorb UV in stratosphere and dissociate into free radicals, the free radicals like Cl will fuse with O2 preventing ozone from forming
These properties formed the rowland-molina hypothesis

55
Q

What is ozone measured in?

A

Dobson units/ DU

56
Q

What is the normal measurement of ozone?

A

300 DU/3mm
less than 220DU = ozone “hole”

57
Q

Where is ozone toxic to?

A

In the troposphere

58
Q

How is ozone measured?

A

Via ground surveys on by equipment on balloons, aircrafts or satellites.
Microwave limb sounder on Aura satellite
ozonesonde data by helium balloon

59
Q

What is dendrochronology?

A

Method of measuring the width of tree rings which shows growth rate and indicates climate

60
Q

How can pollen grains be used to estimate climate?

A

Particular species of preserved pollen grains in lakes can indicate the climate by using radio-carbon dating on the organic matter

61
Q

What is the kyoto protocol?

A

Protocol to place a heavier burden on the countries that produce the most CO2 and to reduce their emissions.
Baso an agreement to lower CO2 emissions.

62
Q

Why is ozone depletion over Antarctica more severe?

A

Because stratospheric temperatures are colder ice crystals and stratospheric clouds form, they provide a surface for CFCs to breakdown and release halogens.
When sunlight occurs in spring the halogen molecules get split producing radicals which fuse to oxygen so less ozone is produced.

63
Q

What is polar vortex?

A

Where the winds around Antarctica rotate, so the low temperatures are maintained.

64
Q

What is the vienna convention for protection of ozone?

A

Formed in 1985, it is an agreement to protect the ozone.
Not legally binding

65
Q

What is the montreal protocol?

A

A Binding agreement to protect the ozone by:
Use and manufacture of CFCs and ODS banned.
HCFCs phased out by 2030
ODS in fire extinguishers only permitted in aircrafts
A fund for poorer countries to implement changes

66
Q

What are some alternatives to CFCs?

A

Roll on deodorant
Pump sprays in cleaning products
Use less stable HCFCs so they breakdown before reaching the stratosphere
CFCs in aerosols replaced with butane
Waste CFCs disposed of properly by drainage and incineration

67
Q

How did they find out the ozone was depleted?

A

2 scientists monitoring ozone over Antarctic with the same equipment over a long period of time found more UV in the troposphere than they shouldve due to less ozone layer

Environmental Science (21 decks)

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