Climate and Weather Exam 1

What is climate?

the long-term average weather pattern in a specific area

What is weather?

the daily weather patterns in an area

What are the interacting components of the climate system?

atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere, tectonic processes

What is response time?

the measure of the rate at which a response to a forcing takes full effect (reaches equillibrium)

Example of a slow forcing with a fast response

tectonics vs temperature

Example of a fast forcing with a slower response

a solar eclipse

Fast response examples

daily heating and cooling due to sun, ocean surface water temp, sea ice response to global warming

Slow response examples

mountain glacier retreat, deep ocean heat and carbon storage, ice sheet growth/decay

How do tectonic processes contribute to the climate system?

slow rates of change, changes to ocean currents, and storage of carbon in the earth

Milankovitch Cycle

alter the amount of solar radiation the planet receives by seasons and altitude

Solar changes in the climate system

essentially turning up and down the wattage of a lightbulb - the sun gives more electromagnetic radiation during a solar maximum

What are anthropogenic forcings?

human caused issues

Examples of anthropogenic forcings

greenhouse gasses, aerosol emissions, land-use

What are feedbacks?

processes that alter the initial response to a forcing either by amplifying the response (positive) or by suppressing the response (negative)

What is Earth’s climate system primarily driven by?

heat energy arriving from the sun as shortwave radiation

Because Earth is staying roughly the same temp over time…

it loses heat at roughly the same rate via longwave radiation

What does Earth’s temperature depend on?

the balance between energy entering and leaving the planet system

Change / Time =

input - output

ASR (absorbed solar radiation) =

ETR (emitted terrestrial radiation)

Albedo definition

the percent of incoming solar radiation that is reflected instead of absorbed

What percent of solar radiation does the atmosphere reflect?

About 30%

Stratosphere

up to 50 km, 19.9% of gas, contains ozone

Troposphere

the lowest 8-18 km of the atmosphere, 80% of gas, where most weather occurs

What percent of longwave back radiation does the atmosphere absorb?

95%

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

the warming of Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere when emitting and trapping infrared heat

What are the gasses in the atmosphere?

nitrogen, oxygen, argon, CO2, neon, helium, methane, hydrogen, krypton

Methods of heat transfer

radiation, sensible heat, latent heat, convection

If the Earth didn’t rotate…

cold air at poles, hot air at equator, air at the poles would sink

What is the Coriolis Effect?

the deflection of a fluid (air or water) from a straight-line path because of Earth’s rotation

Hadley Cells

0-30 degrees

Polar Cells

60-90 degrees

Ferrel Cells

30-60 degrees

Convection drives ____, coriolis ____ the wind

circulation, deflects

A change in forcing depends on…

the concentration of CO2 compared to the pre-industrial value

Example of a process that cools the Earth

volcanic ash after an eruption reflects solar radiation back up

What do aerosols do for the climate?

reflect solar radiation back up

Heat transfer in the ocean

solar energy heats the surface waters and waves/wind mix the heat into the ocean to a depth of a few hundred meters

Gyres definition

a system of ocean currents in ocean basins

What is thermohaline circulation?

currents driven by differences in waters density controlled by temperature and salinity

Freshwater is ___ dense than salt water

less