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Geology Test 1
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What are the five fundamental components of the Earth climate system? | Oceans, ice, solid earth, atmosphere, living organisms |
| What is the difference between climate and weather? | Weather and climate are measured in the same way, but weather is ever changing. Climate is the average state of the Earth over a period of time. |
| What is the difference between detecting and attributing climate change? | Detecting climate change involves measuring changes in temperature, wind, snow cover, etc. Attributing climate change is attributing the cause or forcing of climate change. |
| How do changes in solar output affect climate? | Changes in solar output raise or lower the solar constant- the amount of solar radiation received at the top of the atmosphere. |
| What is radiative forcing? What anthropogenic impacts on climate have a positive radiative forcing? What impacts have a negative radiative forcing? | Radiative forcing is an amount of heat admitted to or from the Earth surface in units of Watts per square meter. Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere have a positive radiative forcing. Sulfate aerosols and land clearing have a negative radiative forcing. |
| What is the difference between short wave and long wave radiation? Which of these is absorbed by greenhouse gases? | Shortwave radiation is emitted by the Sun and absorbed or reflected in the atmosphere and at the Earth surface. Longwave radiation is emitted by the Earth surface and absorbed and emitted by greenhouse gasses. |
| What is the composition for the atmosphere? | Composition of the troposphere is 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, around 1 percent water vapor and argon, and numerous trace gases. |
| What is albedo? What types of Earth surface cover have high or low albedo? | The fraction of shortwave radiation reflected by an object at the Earth surface or in the atmosphere. Light colored materials have a high albedo, dark colored materials have low albedo. |
| In what way is Earth’s energy budget is not balanced? Why is it not balanced? | The Earth is gaining more incoming radiation than it is emitting because greenhouse has concentrations in the atmosphere are rising. |
| Why is atmospheric pressure generally low at the equator and high at subtropical latitudes? | Differential heating of the Earth initiates vertical circulation in the atmosphere. The greatest amount of heating occurs near the equator, warming the lower atmosphere causing air to rise. When it cools it sinks and creates high pressure. |
| Explain why the relationship between the Coriolis effect and trade winds at the equator. | Hadley cell circulation moves air vertically and in a north-south direction. Rotation of the Earth beneath Hadley cell circulation causes air to be deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. |
| Why do deserts exist at subtropical latitudes? | Subtropical latitudes are areas of high atmospheric pressure. Sinking air contracts and retains moisture, resulting in very little precipitation and sunny skies at subtropical latitudes. |
| Why do monsoons occur at low latitudes? | Monsoons occur because the land heats up faster than the neighboring ocean. Air rises over the land and is replaced by moist air coming from the ocean, which also warms and rises. Rising air expands and cools, moisture condenses to produce rainfall. |
| How has the rate of global average surface warming changed since the year 1880? | The rate of warming has increased, especially since the 1970s. |
| Why has the land surface warmed up at a faster rate than the ocean surface over the past 100 years? | The land surface has a lower specific heat, allowing it to warm faster than oceans that have a high specific heat. Oceans also transmit heat to depth by mixing water; this does not happen on land. |
| How are temperature, salinity, and density of ocean water related? | The densest water in the ocean has a high salinity and is cold. The lowest density water has a low salinity and is warm. |
| What are gyres and western boundary currents? Why are western boundary currents important for transporting heat from low to high latitudes? | Gyres move water in a circular motion, and western boundary currents move water along the western edges of oceans. All western boundary currents move water from low latitude where water is warm to high latitude where heat is released into the atmosphere. |
| What is the ENSO? | The El Niño Southern Oscillation, involving changes in sea surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, and wind in the tropical Pacific Ocean. |
| Refer to the image below. Explain the relationship between sea surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, and the strength of trade winds in determining whether normal, La Niña, or El Niño conditions exist in the equatorial Pacaific Ocean. | Strong trade wind push warm water east to west. Warm water in the western Pacific causes low pressure. Cold in the east results in high. When weak, warm water spreads across the ocean. Low pressure over warm water in the east, high in the west. El Niño |
| What types of weather patterns occur during El Niño events? Why are these generally considered to be problematic? | Wetter weather along the eastern Pacific in South and North America. These areas are normally dry and are ill-equipped for heavy rainfall. Floods are common in these places during El Niño events. |
| How are EL Nino intervals and increases in global average temperature related over the past 50 Years? | During El Niño intervals, more heat is released from the Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere. This causes warmer global-average temperatures during EN events. |
| What types of ice exist in the Earth climate system? Why are glaciers and sea ice important? | Snow, glacier ice, sea ice, permafrost. Glaciers and sea ice make up most of the ice in the Earth climate system, and are in direct contact with the oceans, continents, and atmosphere. |
| How do glaciers form? | Perennial snow accumulates year after year, and eventually becomes thick enough to form ice and deform under its own wight. Ic begins to flow outward towards places where it melts. |
| How has global warming affected the northern high latitudes during the 20th and early 21st centuries? Why is melting ice a concern? | Glaciers have experienced a negative mass balance at northern high latitudes, causing them to retreat. Melting ice becomes water that flows into the ocean, raising sea level. |
| What are feedbacks in th Earth climate system? List some examples of positive and negative feedbacks? | Responses to a climate forcing that either amplify or suppress the initial forcing. Example warming causes a glacier to shrink size. the area formally covered by the glacier has a lower albedo than ice, absorbs more radiation and increases initial warming |
| Which of these following gases in the atmosphere is least abundant? Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor | carbon dioxide |
| An aerosol is a microparticle in the atmosphere that? | Reflects incoming solar radiation, decreasing radiative forcing at the Earth surface. |
| A lesser number of sunspots on the Sun’s surface results in? | less incoming radiation |
| By how much has the global average temperature increases since the year 1880? | about 1 degree Celsius |
| During an El Niño event, atmospheric pressure in the eastern Pacific is? | less than normal |
Created by:
pmitchell44