week 12-tay Flashcards
weather
short-term state of the atmosphere
- can change within minutes or hours
- influences what clothes you wear on a given day
climate change
long-term pattern of weather
- average weather other many years in one specific place
- where you live influences the entire wardrobe you buy
pre-human causes of climate change
- solar cycles
- changes to earth’s orbit, tilt, precession
- plate tectonics (continent location)
- volcanic activity
- land cover changes
- ocean currents
- meteorites
- concentration of GHG
land cover changes
refers to forests and fungi
- effect carbon cycle
what is the atmosphere?
region surrounding the Earth comprised of gases and particles bound to the Earth by its gravitational force
atmospheric composition (main chemical species)
- oxygen (78%)
- nitrogen (20%)
- argon (0.9%)
- water vapour (0-4%)
water vapour
highly variable
- H20
layers of the atmosphere
- troposphere
- stratosphere
- mesosphere
- thermosphere
the troposphere
where the vast majority of our weather occurs
cumulonimbus cloud
gives us a well-mixed troposphere
why is the stratosphere so warm?
the ozone layer lies within the stratosphere
- the ozone layer interacts (absorbed) with UV radiation - heating up the stratosphere
thermosphere
should be hottest up here because it is closest to the sun BUT it is not because there isn’t much matter to hold the temperature
- temperature is relative - cannot have temperature without matter to hold it
tropopause
separates the troposphere and stratosphere
stratopause
separates the stratosphere and mesosphere
mesopause
separates the mesosphere and thermosphere
earths energy budget
incoming and out-going radiation of the earth
- radiation from the sun heats up the Earth, but the sun has more heat than the sun needs to the rest is reflected in atmosphere
what would happen if the earth had no atmosphere?
we would have a planet extremely warm during the day and extremely cold at night
example of a plant with no atmosphere
mercury
- 450 degrees during day (everything burns)
- -250 degrees at night (everything freezes)
intensity of radiation
hot objects radiate higher radiation than cooler objects
- radiation from the sun is shorter wavelength, higher intensity energy
- radiation from the Earth is longer wavelength, lower intensity energy
what can we not control in the atmosphere that we have a set amount of?
water vapour
what does climate change do to Earth’s energy budget?
unbalances the incoming and out-going radiation of the Earth
human generated GHG
- CO2
- methane
- nitrous oxide
- tropospheric ozone
- chlorofluorocrbons
- hydrochlorofluococarbons
- hydrofluorocarbons
potent GHG
hydrochlorofluococarbons and hydrofluorocarbons
potent
how much energy they trap