Earth Science 2911 Exam 1

Who produces the most green house emissions?

The US and Europe dominate cumulative green house gas emissions. China is rapidly catching up.

What changes in the precipitation cycle can be attributed to human-caused climate change?

Intensifying droughts, intensifying hurricanes: more rainfall and greater storm surges.

What are effects upon Earth's biota (all living organisms)?

Organisms moving towards poles to escape warm weather and spring is happening earlier.

What are the socioeconomic effects of climate change?

More devastating floods, hotter and longer heatwaves, and more forest fires.

What are the areas that are effected more from climate change?

Africa and south Asia.

The reasons the Earth's climate has warmed over the past century are mostly due to?

Human activities.

What is the El Niño/La Niña

Opposite phases of natural climate pattern across tropical Pacific Ocean (back and forth every 3-7 years on average)• Together, called ENSO (pronounced "en-so") = El Niño-Southern Oscillation.• ENSO pattern can be in 1 of 3states: El Niño, Neutral, La Niña• El Niño (warm phase) and La Niña (cool phase) lead to significant differences from the average(neutral) ocean temperatures, winds, surface pressure, and rainfall across tropical Pacific:• ENSO impacts can be felt globally

What % of US adults in Ohio think global warming is due to human activity?

54%

What has happened with CO2 emissions in the U.S. over the past two decades?

CO2 emissions are going down.

Daytime summer temperature in Ohio are getting warmer. True of false?

False

What is the primary reason that U.S. emissions have gone down since 2005?

Transition from coal to natural gas

According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) it is __________ that the frequency of heat waves has increased in the past 50 years; and ___________ that heavy precipitations events have increased.

Virtually certain; likely

Earth's global averaged surface temperature is approximately ________ degrees F:

57 F (14 deg C)

What part of the electromagnetic spectrum does the energy from the sun mainly arrive in?

Visible

An object with a lower temperature will peak in ________ wavelengths and have _______ energy flux compared to a higher temperature object

longer; lower

Carbon dioxide (CO2) make up ________ % of our atmosphere?

0.04

What is the average surface temperature on Venus?

850 deg F

As you increase the amount of water in a tub (e.g. turn up faucet from low to high), will this cause water to flow out the drain at a faster rate?

Yes

As the temperature of an object increases, what happens to the wavelength of peak radiation?

The radiation peaks at shorter wavelengths.

The higher the temperature of an object the _________ the radiation flux (Watts per sqaure meter).

higher

If the Earth has no greenhouse effect, the temperature on Earth would be _________.

0 deg F

Which has a stronger greenhouse effect-Earth or Venus?

Venus

How much of the CO2 we are putting into the atmosphere has accumulated there?

50%

What will happen to the atmospheric CO2 concentrations in 'emissions cap/no reduction' scenario?

they will continue to go up

If the rate of addition of CO2 from volcanic activity is 0.2 gt C/yr, the addition of CO2 from human activity is about

11 gt C/yr

Isotopes have differences in the numbers of ________.

Neutrons

Which of these processes are part of the "slow" carbon cycle?

Accumulation of carbon in rocks and buried sediment

What percent of current greenhouse gas emissions are in the form of CO2?

82%

Cows release the most methane through:

Burps

Methane has a higher global warming potential than CO2 and stays in the atmosphere for a shorter period of time than CO2. True or False?

True

Approximately what percent of anthropogenic methane emissions is due to enteric fermentation?

25%

What are dust, smoke, and fog?

Aerosols

An increase in sulfate aerosols will cause the climate to...

cool

The Hunga Tonga eruption may have resulted in warming in 2023 because of increased?

water vapor

Ohio was covered in seawater at some point in the past. True of false?

True

Ohio was covered by a glacier at some point in the past. True or false?

True

The seasons of the year are due to the:

tilt of the Earth's axis

The higher the angle of tilt the _______ the winters will be:

colder

The higher the angle of tilt the ______ the summers will be:

warmer

When the Earth's tilt is at a maximum of 24.5 degrees, the warmer summers and colder winters (stronger seasonality) may cause the glacier to ________:

retreat

An El Niño year may cause a _______ in Earth's global temperature

rise

Today the Earth's tilt is 23.5 degrees. When the tilt was at 24.5 degrees, this made the winters _____ and summers ______.

colder; warmer

Currently we are in a(n) ________ period and the Northern Hemisphere summer occurs when Earth is _____ the Sun along its elliptical orbit

interglacial: farthest from (aphelion)

Changes in CO2 levels were the ______ of glacial-interglacial climate cycles.

amplifier

Arctic sea ice melting will be a _________ feedback on global warming

Positive (amplifying)

How much have solar variability, El Niño, and volcanoes varied?

About 0.2 C (0.4 F) averaging about to zero over the past century

How much has human activities contributed to warming?

0.8 C (1 F)

What types of weather events can be attributed to climate change?

Heat waves

What is the relationship between warming and moisture in the atmosphere?

Warmer the temperature the more moisture air holds. But other factors affect rainfall: air currents, clouds.

Energy from Sun that heats Earth arrives mainly in _______ part of spectrum.

visible

Energy is neither created nor destroyed, so Earth must emite energy to maintain balance: What type of energy does Earth mainly emit?

Energy radiated back from Earth is mainly in longer wavelength infrared

Wien's law

An object's emitted radiation peaks at a wavelength (λpeak)determined by its temperature (T)

We can use this basic information to calculate what Earth's temperature should be in ___________ with the energy received from the Sun

radiation balance

Earth's Energy balance: How much of the Sun's radiation does Earth receive?

1360 watts per square meter (W/m 2)

Earth heats up if:

1) the amount of solar radiation received goes up, or 2) greenhouse gases increase and trap more of Sun's heat

Slow cycle:

Volcanoes: input of CO2 to atmosphere from rocks (source), Output of CO2 from atmosphere to rocks (sink)

Fast cycle

Oceans act as both input (source) of CO2 to atmosphere and outputs (sink). Biosphere: output and input of CO2 from atmosphere to vegetation and soils (sinks)

Natural carbon cycle

Atmosphere: 600

Vegetation: 610

Ocean mixed layer: 1000

Soil: 1560

Deep ocean: 38,000

Sediment and rocks: 66,000,000

Volcanoes

About 0.2 Gigatons Carbon/yr are emitted by volcanoes• this is too small a flux to affect climate on human timescales• but volcanoes are the major driving force of Earth's long term climate (e.g.,greenhouse to icehouse transitions), aerosols released from explosive eruptions are known to have a global cooling effect on human timescales

sulfate aerosols

Are of particular significance to climate• they are secondary aerosols produced when sulfur dioxide (SO2) released from burning fossil fuels or volcanic eruptions reacts chemically with gases in Earth's atmosphere

Thus far we have assumed primary drivers of Earth's climate are:

1) changes in solar radiation or 2) changes in greenhouse gas levels but a 3rd driver relates to how reflective Earth's atmosphere (aerosols) and surface('albedo') are to incoming sunlight

Two basic types of volcanoes/eruptions

1. Shield volcanoes (mainly produce effusive lava flows; 'gentle' eruptions) 2. Stratovolcanoes (produce ash and debris; 'explosive' eruptions) Mount Sinabung, Indonesia March 2, 2021

El Nino/ La Nina

La Niña conditions suck heat out of atmosphere and store it below ocean's surface, masking effects of rising greenhouse gas concentrations• El Niño brings that heat back out of ocean to be redistributed around globe and warm Earth

800,000 years CO 2 record

Atmospheric CO 2 variability over hundreds of thousands of years is about 80-90 ppm CO 2 has risen by about 115 ppm since 1960, sits well outside range of natural variability

What drives the ices ages?

1) When tilt is at maximum, warmer summers melt the ice 2) When Earth is at near pass (perihelion) to Sun during northern hemisphere summer, warmer summers melt the ice