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Climate Change in the Earth System > W1: Introduction to the Earth System > Flashcards

W1: Introduction to the Earth System Flashcards

1
Q

What makes up the Earth Sytem?

A
  • Gases
  • Aerosol
  • Clouds
  • Troposphere
  • Stratosphere
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2
Q

List the Atmosphere complex levels (5)

A
  • Gases
  • Aerosol
  • Clouds
  • Troposphere
  • Stratosphere
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3
Q

List the Cryosphere complex levels (2)

A
  • Both poles

- High alpine environments

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4
Q

List the Lithosphere complex levels (4)

A
  • Mantle
  • Upper mantle
  • Core
  • Asthenosphere
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5
Q

List the Land Surface complex levels (6)

A
  • People
  • Animals
  • Plants
  • River systems
  • Agricultural lands
  • Urban areas
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6
Q

List the Ocean complex levels (2)

A
  • Shallow ocean

- Deep ocean

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7
Q

What is a cycle in terms of the Earth System? Name some cycles (3)

A

Movement of matter and energy often cyclical: often regenerating

  • Hydrological
  • Carbon cycle
  • Nitrogen cycle
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8
Q

What was the initial approach to understanding the earth system?

A

Remote observation satellites

- Observing a quantity of something

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9
Q

What is the alternative approach to understanding the earth system?

A

Fluxes on forest scale ecosystems

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10
Q

What is a flux network

A

A big international network of towers monitoring the exchange of greenhouse gasses, energy and water above an ecosystem using sensors

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11
Q

What does an Open Path Analyser measure?

A

Measures the concentration between ball and sensor using lasers or alternative methods at high temporal resolution

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12
Q

Describe some features of the Open Path Analyser (3 large)

A
  • Like satellite measurements you’re only getting a concentration
  • If coupled with flux towers (sonic anemometer) you get an understanding of very small air movement over time at extremely high temporal resolution (milliseconds)
  • Coupling sonic anemometers with satellite concentration data above an ecosystem such as a forest we can understand how atmospheric concentrations change with time.
  • Sonic anemometer will allow you to calculate the actual net air movement.
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13
Q

What is the advantage of an Open Path Analyser?

A

Clear picture of what’s happening immediately beneath the tower and the ecosystem within its footprint

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14
Q

What are the disadvantages of an Open Path Analyser? (4)

A
  • Expensive
  • Requires a lot of maintenance
  • Don’t get global coverage: good coverage in NA, EU, EAS
  • Little coverage in important ecosystems e.g. Amazon and Congo
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15
Q

What is another name for Flux Towers?

A

Eddy covariance towers

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16
Q

List some characteristics of a Climate Model (4)

A
  • Very physically based
  • Relies generally on physical processes: drives weather forecasts
  • Relies on atmospheric circulation and radiation and understanding of how wind moves around the earth
  • Other physical components: sea ice, ocean circulation, land physics and hydrology
17
Q

List some characteristics of an Earth System Model (2)

A
  • Far better representation of the chemistry of the atmosphere
  • Key difference is that life is incorporated; ocean ecology; living things process components within system, plant ecology and land use on surface
18
Q

Why cant we always use Climate Models to project more global data?

A

E.g. weather forecasts

  • Demands a huge amount of processing power:
  • Takes a few hours to run just for the UK.
  • Scaling that up to the whole earth and including ocean ecology, plant ecology and chemistry goes past the reaches of computing power
19
Q

What is a GCM?

A

General circulation model

20
Q

What is an ESM?

A

Earth system model

21
Q

How do GCMs and ESMs break things down?

A
  • Grid system
  • Quantifies the exchanges and movement of material
  • Operate from ~0.5 to ~2.5 degrees (1 degree about 100km in latitude)
  • -Computer programmes can represent the movement of substances and energies vertically and horizontally
22
Q

What is the metric size of a 1 degree grid?

A

100km in latitude

23
Q

List some GCM and ESM variables at the surface (6)

A
  • Temperature
  • Humidity
  • Pressure
  • Moisture fluxes
  • Heat fluxes
  • Radiation fluxes
24
Q

List some GCM and ESM variables in the atmospheric column (6)

A
  • Wind vectors
  • Humidity
  • Clouds
  • Temperature
  • Height
  • Precipitation
  • Aerosols
25
Q

How do GCMs and ESMs work?

A
  • Breaks the system as a whole into elements that equations within a computer model can now solve
  • Consistent fields of data across the earth
26
Q

What does RCPs stand for?

A

Representative Concentration Pathways

27
Q

What are RCPs?

A
  • Scenarios of radiative forcing, not emissions

- Effect on number of watts per m2 that we are retaining in the atmosphere as heat

28
Q

Which RCP is optimistic in line with what? And pessimistic in line with what?
RCP 2.8
RCP 8.5

A

RCP 2.8: Optimistic keeping to IPCC target

RCP 8.5: Pessimistic continue with all fossil combustion

29
Q

ESMs are complex but what can’t they represent?

A
  • Dynamic vegetation models
  • Pest & disease models
  • Crop models: depends on management
  • Hydrological models

Climate Change in the Earth System (1 decks)

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