Climate Science Study Guide Vocabulary

Flashcards covering core vocabulary, climate evidence, proxy types, and historical climate concepts based on Chapters 1-3 lecture notes.

Weather

The atmosphere's short-term condition at a given time and place, including temperature, rain, wind, and humidity.

Climate

The long-term pattern and variability of weather in a specific place or across Earth.

Climate normal

A baseline calculation describing typical climate patterns that uses at least $30\,\text{years}$ of observations.

Climate variability

Short-term fluctuations around a longer-term climate pattern, such as an unusually hot year.

Climate change

A persistent shift in long-term climate statistics, generally measured over $30\,\text{years}$ or more.

Temperature anomaly

The difference calculated as the observed temperature minus the average temperature for a specified baseline.

Ocean heat content

The amount of heat stored in the ocean, which absorbs roughly $90\%$ of the excess heat trapped in the climate system.

Sea ice

Frozen ocean water floating on the sea surface that does not directly raise sea level significantly when it melts.

Ice sheet / glacier

A mass of ice resting on land that adds water to the ocean and raises sea level when it melts.

Albedo

The fraction of solar energy or sunlight reflected by a surface.

Ice-albedo feedback

A process where warming melts ice, exposing darker water that absorbs more sunlight, leading to further warming and ice melt.

Arctic amplification

The phenomenon where the Arctic warms at a faster rate than the global average, driven by ice-albedo feedback, ocean heat storage, atmospheric circulation, and soot.

Thermal expansion

The expansion of seawater as it warms, causing it to occupy more volume and contribute to sea level rise.

Paleoclimatology

The scientific study of past climates.

Paleoproxy

An indirect natural record used by scientists to infer past climate conditions prior to or alongside direct instrument measurements.

Temporal resolution

The smallest time interval that can be distinguished in a proxy or climate record.

Temporal coverage

The total span of time back into the past that a proxy or climate record extends.

Dendroclimatology

The field of studying past climate conditions through the analysis of tree rings.

Speleothems

Cave mineral growth layers and isotopes used as proxies to date and infer past climate conditions covering up to $500{,}000\,\text{years}$.

Icehouse period

A long Earth interval characterized by substantial permanent polar ice sheets.

Greenhouse period

A long Earth interval characterized by little to no permanent polar ice.

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)

A period of rapid warming around $55\,\text{million years}$ ago driven by a massive release of greenhouse gases, used as an analogue for modern carbon release.

Milankovitch cycles

Slow variations in Earth's orbit, axial tilt, and wobble that alter the seasonal and geographical distribution of incoming sunlight over tens to hundreds of thousands of years.

Holocene

Our current interglacial epoch, which began approximately $11{,}700\,\text{years}$ ago.