Energy Flow in Global Systems Flashcards

Flashcards about Energy Flow in Global Systems

What is the biosphere?

The thin layer of the Earth that has conditions suitable for supporting life, consisting of the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.

What is the atmosphere?

The layer of gases that surrounds the Earth, composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace amounts of other gases.

What is the biosphere?

The thin layer of the Earth that has conditions suitable for supporting life, consisting of the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.

What is the atmosphere?

The layer of gases that surrounds the Earth, composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace amounts of other gases.

What are the four layers of the Earth's atmosphere?

Troposphere (0-10 km), Stratosphere (10-50 km), Mesosphere (50-80 km), Thermosphere (80-500 km).

What is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere?

Nitrogen

Nitrogen

What is the hydrosphere?

All of the water on Earth in solid, liquid, and gas form.

Where is water stored in the hydrosphere?

About 97% is stored as salt water in the Earth’s oceans and about 3% is stored as freshwater in lakes, rivers, groundwater, and glaciers.

What is the lithosphere?

The solid portion of the Earth that sits above the Earth’s mantle, composed of rocks, minerals, and elements.

What is solar energy?

Solar energy is radiant energy–it is transmitted as electromagnetic waves.

What is insolation?

The amount of solar energy received by a region of the Earth’s surface, affected by time of year, angle of inclination, length of daylight, cloud cover, the albedo effect, and atmospheric dust.

What is the angle of inclination?

The degree that the Earth’s poles are tilted from the perpendicular plane of orbit.

What is the angle of incidence?

The angle between a ray falling on a surface and the line perpendicular to that surface.

What causes seasonal changes in latitudes north and south of the equator?

Angle of inclination and the resulting changes in the angle of incidence.

What is albedo?

The percentage of solar radiation that a surface reflects.

What type of surfaces reflect more solar energy?

light-coloured, shiny surfaces, such as snow and ice

How does atmospheric dust affect solar energy?

This reduces the amount of solar energy that reaches the lithosphere and hydrosphere.

What is the natural greenhouse effect?

The absorption of outgoing infrared radiation by naturally occurring water vapour, carbon dioxide, and other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere.

Which gas is most responsible for the natural greenhouse effect?

Water Vapour

What is the net radiation budget?

The difference between the amount of incoming radiation and outgoing radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface and atmosphere.

What are the three ways that thermal energy is transferred?

radiation, conduction, convection

What is the Coriolis effect?

The deflection of any object from a straight-line path due to the rotation of the Earth.

What is specific heat capacity?

The amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 g of the substance by 1°C.

What is quantity of thermal energy?

The amount of thermal energy absorbed or released when the temperature of a specific mass of a substance changes by a certain number of degrees.

How is thermal energy transferred through the hydrosphere?

Through global winds that create ocean currents, through convection currents vertically in bodies of water, and through the hydrologic cycle.

How are convection currents created in the hydrosphere?

the density of water decreases when its temperature increases, so warm water tends to rise, cooler water is more dense, so it tends to sink.

How does the hydrologic cycle transfer thermal energy through the biosphere?

This helps to keep the average temperature of Earth relatively stable.

What is heat of fusion?

The amount of energy absorbed when 1 mol of the substance changes from solid phase to liquid phase, without a change in temperature.

What is heat of vaporization?

The amount of energy absorbed when 1 mol of the substance changes from liquid phase to vapour phase, without a change in temperature.