U3L5 Greenhouse Gases and Ozone

Question 1

What objects emit electromagnetic energy?

Answer 1

Objects that are not at absolute zero emit electromagnetic energy.

Question 2

How can the car become hotter than its surroundings?

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Answer 2

As sunlight reaches each layer of Earth’s atmosphere, some is reflected, some is absorbed, and some is transmitted. The sunlight that reaches Earth’s surface is largely composed of visible light and near infrared light. The atmosphere is transparent to these wavelengths of light. So are the windows in a car. Solar energy enters the car and heats the surfaces inside.

Objects that are not at absolute zero emit electromagnetic energy. For temperatures typically found at Earth’s surface, the emitted energy is in the far infrared range. The glass in car windows is not transparent to these wavelengths of energy. So, the heat emitted by the car’s surfaces cannot escape from the interior of the car.

Question 3

Temperatures near the surface of the planet stay within a fairly ____ range.

Answer 3

narrow

Question 4

Describe the cycle that warms the atmosphere near Earth’s surface.

Answer 4

Earth’s land masses and ocean absorb energy from sunlight in the visible and near infrared wavelengths. They reradiate it in the far infrared wavelengths. Some gases in the atmosphere absorb the far infrared wavelengths radiated upward by Earth’s surface and reradiate them in all directions. Some of this retained heat energy is absorbed by other gas molecules and reradiated again.

Question 5

What term is used to describe the way the Earth’s atmosphere heat up its surface?

Answer 5

Greenhouse effect

Question 6

What is the definition of greenhouse effect?

Answer 6

Gases near Earth’s surface absorbing and remitting heat

Question 7

How is the greenhouse effect different from an actual greenhouse?

Answer 7

There is no physical barrier preventing the warm air from rising.

Question 8

What is the definition of greenhouse gas?

Answer 8

a gas that absorbs and reradiates infrared radiation

Question 9

What does excess carbon dioxide do to the Earth?

Answer 9

This disruption to the carbon cycle continues to warm up Earth, limiting the ability of natural carbon sinks, such as forests and the ocean, to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This affects the ability of soils to store carbon.

Question 10

Methane is an other greenhouse gas. Where does it usually come from?

Answer 10

Methane is produced from landfills, livestock, agricultural practices such as growing rice, and the production and transport of fossil fuels.

Question 11

Methane accounts for ____ of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Answer 11

10%

Question 12

Methane is ____ times more efficient in trapping heat than carbon dioxide so it has a big impact on global warming.

Answer 12

21

Question 13

What is nitrous oxide and what does it do to the Earth’s atmosphere?

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Answer 13

Nitrous oxide is a natural byproduct of the nitrogen cycle. However, nitrous oxide also comes from industrial activities such as wastewater treatment. Nitrous oxide can trap as much as 298 times the amount of the heat that carbon dioxide can.

Question 14

What is the nitrogen cycle?

Answer 14

The nitrogen cycle describes the way that nitrogen is circulated among the atmosphere, plants, animals, and microorganisms that live in soil and water.

Question 15

Nitrous oxide can trap as much as _____ times the amount of the heat that carbon dioxide can.

Answer 15

298 💀

Question 16

What are fluorinated gases and what do they do to the Earth’s atmosphere?

Answer 16

They have no natural source and only come from products such as refrigerators, circuit breakers, air conditioners, and aerosol cans. Fluorinated gases can retain the equivalent of 10,000 times the amount of heat compared to carbon dioxide.

Question 17

Fluorinated gases can retain the equivalent of _______ times the amount of heat compared to carbon dioxide.

Answer 17

10,000 💀💀💀

Question 18

What is being done to fluorinated gases by us humans?

Answer 18

THANKFULLY, fluorinated gases are present only in very small concentrations and work is being done to regulate their production. This is helping to address a cause of climate change.

Question 19

What part does water vapor take in global warming?

Answer 19

Water vapor depends on the temperature of the atmosphere. As the air becomes warmer, it can hold more moisture. Water vapor is not increased directly by human activity, but instead as human activity warms the atmosphere.

Question 20

What part does carbon dioxide take in global warming?

Answer 20

Carbon dioxide is exchanged through the atmosphere via photosynthesis, respiration, organic decay, and the burning of organic material. In the past two hundred years, the burning of organic material has greatly increased, increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 30%. Carbon dioxide that is added to the atmosphere will remain for hundreds of years.

Question 21

What part does methane take in global warming?

Answer 21

Methane is a stronger absorber and emitter of infrared radiation than carbon dioxide, but it is present in the atmosphere in much smaller amounts. It is emitted from landfills, petroleum and natural gas production, and agriculture, especially the raising of grazing animals. It remains in the atmosphere for around a decade.

Question 22

What part does nitrous oxide take in global warming?

Answer 22

A long-lived and potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide has increased in concentration due to agriculture and the use of fertilizers. It is also produced in combustion.

Question 23

What part does Ozone take in global warming?

Answer 23

Stratospheric ozone is not considered a greenhouse gas because it is not in the troposphere. Pollution can cause reactions that produce ozone closer to Earth’s surface.

Question 24

In the atmosphere, helium gas occurs as single atoms, nitrogen molecules as paired atoms, and nitrous oxide molecules have three atoms. Which would you expect to be a greenhouse gas?

Answer 24

Nitrous oxide molecules, which have three atoms

Question 25

Molecules with two atoms are transparent to infrared radiation. Why?

Answer 25

Molecules with two atoms take one shape and have one mode of vibration. As a result of this simpler vibration, oxygen, nitrogen, and similar gases are transparent to infrared radiation.

Question 26

Idk how to put this on a sentence, so just read.

Don’t skip it READ IT.

Answer 26

Greenhouse gases such as water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons are formed of three or more atoms. They can take multiple shapes and have more modes of vibration, as they bend or stretch. Because of their complexity, they are more likely to interact with infrared radiation and absorb and reradiate it.

Molecular vibration is modeled using balls and springs. Unlike the model, actual molecular energy is quantized. That means not all wavelengths of light are absorbed and re-emitted. Instead, greenhouse gas molecules absorb and reradiate only certain energy levels in the infrared range.

Question 27

Electromagnetic energy emitted by Earth’s surface is in the ______ range.

Answer 27

infrared

Question 28

The atmosphere _______ transparent to electromagnetic energy emitted by Earth’s surface.

Answer 28

is not

Question 29

What is ozone made up of?

Answer 29

Three oxygen atoms (O3)

Question 30

What percentage is ozone in the troposphere?

Answer 30

10%

Question 31

About 90% is in the ozone layer above Earth’s surface in the _________.

Answer 31

stratosphere

Question 32

When and where does ozone form?

Answer 32

Ozone forms in the atmosphere when energy from the sun breaks apart oxygen molecules (O2). A single oxygen atom then combines with an oxygen molecule to form ozone.

Question 33

Ozone in the stratosphere is called _________.

Answer 33

good ozone

Question 34

Why is ozone in the stratosphere good?

Answer 34

The ozone forms a protective layer that absorbs most of the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

Question 35

Ozone in the troposphere is called ________.

Answer 35

bad ozone

Question 36

Why is ozone in the troposphere bad?

Answer 36

Nitrogen oxides and other harmful gases in the air close to Earth’s surface react with sunlight to produce harmful levels of ozone. The ozone can break down tissue, cause respiratory disease, and increase allergen sensitivity.

Question 37

The amount of ozone varies due to what?

Answer 37

Latitude and seasons (given reference)

Question 38

When does ozone increase and when does it decrease.

Answer 38

Intense sunlight produces more ozone near the tropics, but global air circulation transports ozone to other areas. Ozone accumulates at the middle latitudes and the poles. Ozone levels at high latitudes increase in winter and peak in the spring. Levels decrease in summer and fall.

Question 39

Where is the ozone hole.

Answer 39

Over Antarctica

In the early 1980s, satellite imaging began to show a depletion of ozone over Antarctica. Seasonal variations modify the effect, but yearly images show a significant increase in this ozone hole.

Question 40

Where is the other less extreme ozone hole?

Answer 40

The Arctic also experiences depletion in ozone, but the effect is less extreme there.

Question 41

Why do these ozone holes form?

Answer 41

The ozone hole forms because industry and the use of fossil fuels release harmful gases, primarily those containing chlorine and bromine that react with and destroy ozone in the stratosphere.

Question 42

What is the Montreal Protocol?

Answer 42

In 1987, global industries and government signed the Montreal Protocol to stop the production of ozone-depleting gases. Since that time, the ozone hole has slowly begun to decrease.

Question 43

What is the definition of ozone hole?

Answer 43

Decrease in ozone over Antarctica

Question 44

What would happen if no action were taken to reduce the ozone hole?

Answer 44

Earth would experience extreme levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation with devastating effects on all life on Earth.

Question 45

Which chemical mainly cause the ozone hole?

Answer 45

chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs

Question 46

Ozone in which layer of the atmosphere is sometimes called bad ozone?

Answer 46

Troposphere

Question 47

What is a greenhouse gas?

Answer 47

any gas in the troposphere that absorbs and re-emits infrared radiation

Question 48

In the greenhouse effect, far infrared radiation is _____ Earth’s surface and absorbed and reemitted by ____ gases in the atmosphere. These gases have _______ in concentration over the past century.

Answer 48

emitted from; some; increased