Climate science

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Carbon Source

Releases more carbon into the atmosphere than it takes in (e.g.) coal burning; something that emits CO2

Green House Gases (GHGs)

Invisible gases in the atmosphere produced naturally and by human activity which reflect heat back to earth.

Green House Effect

Trapping of the sun's heat to keep the Earth warmer.

GWP (global warming potential)

How much heat a GHG can trap using CO2 as a base level of 1.

CO2 equivalent

Measures GWP of GHG based on CO2 emissions.

Fossil Fuels

Formed from dead organisms buried for millions of years, e.g. coal, oil, natural gas.

Carbon

An element found in CO2, natural gas (methane), coal, sugar, ethanol, humans, biomass.

Carbon Sink

Absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases (e.g., forest); a place to store carbon.

Extreme weather events

Unusual or intense heat, rain, wind, snow or drought that causes natural disasters.

carbon capture and storage (CCS)

Capture and storage of CO2 from emissions before it enters the atmosphere.

Deforestation

Cutting down and removing trees from a forest such as the Amazon.

Soil Carbon Storage

Process where soil naturally absorbs large amounts of carbon by photosynthesis of plants.

Tipping Point

Abrupt or quick change that leads to large and irreversible changes in the climate.

Emissions

Producing and releasing a gas into the atmosphere especially carbon.

Ton

Unit of weight equal to 2,000 pounds. Used only in US and Canada.

Metric Ton (tonne)

Unit of weight. 1,000 kilograms, which is about 2,200 pounds.

Prefixes- Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera

Kiloton = thousand ton = 1,000,000kg (metric); megaton = million tons; gigaton = billion tons; Teraton = trillion tons.

Visible light

Part of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum the eye can see and is a form of EM radiation.

Infrared Radiation

Light on the EM spectrum that is invisible to the human eye, but that we feel as heat.

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Primary GHG caused by human activity. Comes from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), burning biomass (plants/trees), or human/plant respiration - breathing.

Methane (CH4)

Comes from natural gas, natural gas leaks, cow burps, flooding rice fields, landfill emissions.

Nitrous Oxide (N2O)

Comes from burning coal & gasoline inefficiently, use of fertilizers, farming practices.

CFCs & HFCs

Human made compounds originally in coolants for refrigerators and air conditioners. GWP is 300 to 10,000 times more than CO2.

ice cores

pieces of ice used to track earths past weather

Tree Rings (Dendrochronology)

tracking changes in the earth weather in the past hundreds to thousands of years, using the thickness of rings in trees

pollen grain

structure that contains the entire male gametophyte in seed plants

Biodiversity

the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

ocean acidification

decreasing pH of ocean waters due to absorption of excess atmospheric CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels

UV

ultraviolet

visible light

Electromagnetic radiation that can be seen with the unaided eye

infrared radiation

Electromagnetic waves with wavelengths that are longer than visible light but shorter than microwaves, we perceive as heat.

sea level rise

Causes erosion of shorelines and rainforests, flooding of wetlands that house freshwater ecosystems. Caused by global climate changes that is melting sea ice

Drought

A long period of low precipitation

Snowball Earth

the period of time during the late Precambrian when snow and ice completely covered the planet

Milankovitch cycles

Changes in the shape earth's orbit and tilt that cause glacial periods and interglacial periods.

eccentricity of orbit

Sometimes the orbit is nearly circular, sometimes elliptical

precession (of Earth)

causes the position of the Celestial Poles to change very slowly

obliquity cycle

Tilt of Earth's axis varies from 21.5 to 24.5 over 41,000 years, changing season severity