Week 9 Flashcards

1
Q

List three oscillations and where they affect.

A
ENSO = El nino and the southern oscillation
over 
- tropical pacific
PDO = Pacific decadal oscillation
NAO = North Atlantic Oscillation
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2
Q

What is conisdered normal conditions?

A

Wet indonesia, dry south america

  • upwelling occuring in south america
  • high pressure near south america
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3
Q

What is cosidered ENSO conditions (name 4)

A

high pressure over western pacific (indonesia)

  • Low over south america.
  • Warm water near south america,
  • Weak upwelling
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4
Q

What is La Nina? what are the conditions like?

A
  • Lower than normal pressure over western pacific

- high than normal over south america

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5
Q

Difference between El nino and La nina?

A

El nino, above average surface temperature

La nina, Below average surface temperature

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6
Q

How predictable is El nino?

A

Not very predictable in terms of magnitude, but we observe that there is heating every 5 years or so.

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7
Q

Why does El Nino occur?

A

Still very uncertain, limited data has been taken, unsure of proper techniques to use.

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8
Q

What are beieved to be the main causes of El nino?

A

It is believed to be ocean atmosphere interactions such as

  • SST sea surface temperature
  • SSP, sea surface pressure
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9
Q

What processes indicate a PDO (pacific decadal oscillation) (+ vs -)

A

PDO + = High SST in tropics and western north america
Low SST in the western north pacfic
- PDO - is the opposite.

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10
Q

What processes indicate a NAO or North Atlantic oscillation? When is this likely to occur?

A

Icelandic low pressure

  • Azore high pressure
  • NAO + - warmer south east coast US, warmer nordic countries, and colder west coast of africa, developed during winter.
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11
Q

What is Detection and attribution?

A

Detection is the reconition of a signal amongnst noise,

Attribution is determining the cause of the detected trend

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12
Q

What has been detected and attrbuted in the last years

A

We have detected the impact that humans have had on changing climate, this is refered to as anthropogenic forcings,

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13
Q

What is the is the GHG that contributes the most to globa warming, what are main sources of it?

A

CO2, the two main sources are

  1. Forest clearing
  2. fossil fuel burning.
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14
Q

Where is the CO2 content the highest? where does the rest of it go?

A

CO2 content is the highest in the NH, specially in the atmosphere.
The rest is absorbed by the biosphere, and the shallow ocean.

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15
Q

Who are the main producers of CO2

A

North america
Europe
East Asia
(the most developed and economically active countries.

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16
Q

Where do observe CO2 as a sink or a source in our oceans?

A

CO2 can be absorbed in colder waters because CO2 has a greater solubility in cold water,
In contrast, warm waters around the tropics act as sources of CO2 in the oceans.

17
Q

What actions have been taken in some tropical countries to combat CO2 concentrations

A

countries such as malaysia, brazil, australia have all undergone reforestation plans which have reduced Atmospheric CO2

18
Q

What is the source of CH4 emissions. How much of the GHG effect does it contribute?

A
  1. Rice irrigations
  2. Tending livestock
  3. destruction of Wetlands
    ~16%
19
Q

What does global warming potential mean?

What factors does this depend on?

A

Indicator developed to measure the relative power of a given amount of different GHG’s relative to CO2. - Effectiveness as GHG
- Lifetime in atmosphere

20
Q

What is CO2 equivalent

A

Mass of CO2 GHG that is required to have the same effect as 1 kg of Other GHG’s

21
Q

What contributes to the Global warming potential of the day. Describe specific conditions

A

Life time has a large impact, gases that lie in a place for longer have a greater GWP.
Effectiveness relates to heat capacity, greater heat capacity will have greater effect.

22
Q

How do you convert CH4 emissions to CO2?

A

1 kg of CH4 = 25 kg of CO2 in GWP.

17*25 = 425

23
Q

Why do we observe a leveling off point of global temperature in icehouse and green house conditions?

A

Green house conditions,

  • CO2 saturation
  • Absence of ice

Ice house
- limit to which albedo feedback is strongest