Which is a list of all the key components of Earth's climate systems?
D) air, water, ice, land and living things
Which gases are the principal contributors to the natural greenhouse effect?
Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour
How are greenhouse gases affecting the Earth's atmosphere?
Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation emitted by Earth's surface and emit about half of this radiation back toward Earth's surface.
Which of the following is an example of thermal expansion?
A) As global temperatures increase, organisms that carry diseases may move farther north
Describe what happens to energy from the Sun once it reaches Earth.
Earth's oceans absorb about half of the total energy, causing them to warm up.
T/F CFCs are greenhouse gases.
False
T/F The leeward side of a mountain range recieves less precipitation than the windward side of the mountain range.
True
T/F Heating and cooling our homes is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions by individuals.
True
What is Earth's climate system made up of?
The sun, lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and living things.
In what form does the Earth absorb radiation from the Sun, and then re-radiate it back out to space in?
In - UV rays, infrared rays, visible light
Out - infrared rays
What two factors are the main causes of rising sea levels?
1. Melting Ice
2. Thermal Expansion of water
What greenhouse gas is produced mainly by burning fossil fuels?
Carbon Dioxide
The oceans play an important role in balancing Earth's climate because they transfer what?
Thermal energy
What effect states that an ice covered Earth would reflect more of the Sun's energy than an Earth with no ice?
Albedo effect
A ______exists when a cause creates an effect that influences the original cause?
A feedback loop
What type of energy is equal to the energy radiated by the Earth?
Absorbed
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather includes all atmospheric conditions that occur in a given place at a given time. Climate is the usual, or average, pattern of weather in a given region over a long peiod of time.
What do meteorologists study?
temperature (air and weather)
type and amount of precipitation
wind speed and direction
relative humidity
atmospheric pressure
fog, mist or cloud cover
What is relative humidity?
The amount of water in the air relative to the maximum amount of water that the air can hold at that temperature.
What do meterologists use to study weather?
weather satellites
weather balloons
aircrafts
thermometers
anemometers
barometers
rain gauge
What do climatoligists study?
Weather measurements over a period of 30 + years and average the results to study the climate of the region.
What does the climate of a region determine?
Which animals and plants lives there and what weather you can expect.
What does an anemometer measure?
Wind speed
What are the five climate zones?
Tropical
Dry
Moderate (Temperate)
Cold (Continental)
Polar
What is an ecoregion?
New climate zones that focus on the climate and ecology of
the region. These were defined as a result of concerns over the survival of ecosustems in the last 30 years.
What is a bioclimate profile?
A collection of graphs to show temperature and moisture conditions of a given region.
What defines the climate in a region?
Distance from the equator (latitude)
The presence of large bodies of water (eg. Lake Effect)
Land Formations
The height above sea level (altitude)
The presence of ocean or air currents
How does the distance from the equator affect climate?
The sun hits the equator directly, making it hotter. Areas farther from the equator are colder because of less direct sunlight.
How does the presence of large bodies of water affect climate?
Water absorbs and stores more thermal energy than land, making the surronding region cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. These regions also have more snowfall in winter becaue cold air passing over the warmer water absorbs water vapour which condenses as snow when it reaches cold land.
How does the presence of land formations affect affect climate?
Mountains and other land formations affect the movement of air. Clouds are pushed by wind over mountains, and lose their moisture as rainfall on the same size, called the "windward side". The leeward side recieves little rain.
What is the "rain shadow effect"?
When the leeward side recieves less rain then the windward side of a mountain.
How does the altitude affect climate?
At higher altitudes, there is less atmospheric pressure because there is less air above to push down. As air from lower altitudes rise, it expands and cools down. The cooler "alpine climate" affect ecosystems at high altitudes.
How does the presence of ocean or air currents affect climate?
Ocean currents act like an enormous conveyor belt, moving thermal energy from the equator to the poles. Warm ocean current heat the moist air above them, producing rain and warm the land. Cool air bring cold, dry air and cools the land.
What does the Earth's global climate system include?
Atmosphere, land, hydrosphere, sun and all living things.
When radiation makes contact with a particle of matter, what can it do?
Be transmitted, absorbed and reflected.
What does radiation from the sun do when it hits Earth?
30% is reflected back into space by clouds, the atmosphere and the earth's surface
70% is absorbed by the earth's surface, clouds and atmosphere gases
~1% of energy is used by plants for photosynthesis and the rest is absorbed by rocks and water
What equation can be used to describe how Earth balances its thermal energy?
Energy absorbed from the sun = Energy emitted by the earth
What are the five layers of the atmosphere?
Troposphere (human, mountains, weather)
Stratosphere (Weather balloons, airplanes)
Mesopheren (meteors)
Thermosphere (space stations, shuttles)
Exosphere (stars, space)
Describe up the make-up of gases in the atmosphere.