EES EXAM 3

• Weather: Short-lived, local patterns temperature and precipitation due to circulation of the troposphere.
• Climate: Long term patterns of temperature and precipitation.

• Most solar energy reaching Earth is near infrared.
• Greenhouse effect: CO₂ and other "greenhouse" gases prevent infrared radiation from escaping the Earth's atmosphere.
• Greenhouse gases: water vapor (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrogen oxides (NO_x ), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC)

Energy stored in water vapor.

• *it occurs when its warm surface waters in Pacific Ocean move back & forth between Indonesia and South America.
• *Every 4-7 years
• *High-pressure
• cells replace the normally low atmospheric pressure of the western Pacific
• Ocean

• *Drought in Africa, Australia, & Indonesia
• *Flooding in California, Ecuador, Peru, Tahiti
• *Hawaiian Hurricanes only during El Nino yrs.
• *Decreases Atlantic hurricane actvity
• *Reduces forest fires in Arizona, Texas, & N.M
• *Reduces tornadoes
• *Produces better citrus & vegetable crops
• *Improves fishing off California because of luke warm water

• *Climates shift on scales of decades, centuries or millennia.
• *revolutionized our understanding of climate history.
• *_{Analyze oxygen, carbon dioxide, volcanic eruptions}
•   *Oxygen Isotopes
•       Cold years- lighter isotope evaporates more easily        than water with heavier isotope.
• *Vostok ice core-420,000

• Variations in the Earth's orbit cause climate change.
• A) Eccentricity: every 100,000 years the Earth's orbit becomes more elliptical and then returns back to more of a circle.
• B) Obliquity: The tilt of the Earth changes from ~21.5 to ~24.5 every 41,000 yrs.
• C) Precession: Or the wobble of the Earth's axis occurs during a 26,000 yrs. period.

• Carbon Dioxide: emissions have doubled from 1970 to 2010.
•  *fossil-fuel burning is the major human caused source of carbon dioxide.

• vehicle engines, agriculture processes are major sources.
• *The relative effects of each greenhouse gas can be seen by converting them CO₂ Equivalents.

• ruminants and rice paddies are sources
•   *Microbial decay in anoxic conditions.

• Carbon Trading: legal limits on emissions are set & countries that want to emit more must purchase emissions credits from others.
• *A global market for trading carbon emissions has already developed.
• *This market may grow $500 billion a year by 2050.

• *U.S. Clean Air Act (1963) designated six major (conventional or criteria pollutants) for which maximum ambient air levels are mandated.
• *Sulfur Dioxide, *Nitrogen Oxides, *Carbon Monoxide, *Ozone,*Lead,Particulates.

• Primary Pollutants: released directly from the source.
• Secondary Pollutants: converted to a hazardous formafter entering the air & mixing with other air components (ie. acid rain)
• *Fugitive Emissions: do not go through smokestack.
•   *Dust from strip mining, rock crushing, building construction/destruction

• fossil-fuel combustion (coal & oil) & smelting of sulfide ores.
• ((corrosive gas which reacts with water vapor in the air to cause acid rain))

reactive gases formed when nitrogen is heated above 650C in the presence of oxygen, or when nitrogen compounds are oxidized by bacteria.

• *Many toxic metals occur as trace elements in fuel especially coal.
• *It is 2/3 of all metallic air pollution
• *Neurotoxin: Binds to brain cells.

Mercury and Halogens

• *70% from coal-burning power plants, smelting, waste incineration.
• *Dangerous
• neurotoxin, 75% of human exposure comes from eating fish.
• •40%
• exposure attributed to contaminated tuna
• •Aquatic
• bacteria responsible for converting airborne mercury to methyl mercury
• •Bioaccumulates

• •(Fluorine,Chlorine, Bromine)
• *CFCs
• (chlorofluorocarbons) release chlorine and fluorine in the stratosphere, which
• deplete ozone layer.
• *CFCs
• banned in developed countries but still used elsewhere in propellants and
• refrigerators

• *Aerosol: solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in the atmosphere
• *atmospheric aerosols are usually called particulate material
• *includes
• ash, soot, lint, smoke, pollen, spores, etc.
• *reduce visibility
• *smaller than 2.5 micrometers

• Deposition of wet acidic solutions or dry acidic particles from the air
• *Unpolluted rain generally has pH of 5.6.
• •Carbonic acid from atmospheric CO2
• *H2SO4 and HNO3 from industrial and automobile emissions
• are cause of acid precipitation.
• *Aquatic effects are severe, as pH of 5 in freshwater lakes disrupts animal reproduction and kills plants, insects and invertebrates. Below pH 5, adult fish die.

• •Reducing Production
• *Conservation –by reducing electricity consumption, insulating buildings and providing energy
• saving public transportation

• *Particulate Removal
• •Remove particles physically by trapping
• them in a porous mesh which allows air to pass through but holds back solids.

• *•Electrostatic Precipitators-fly ash particles pick up electrostatic charge as they pass between large
• electrodes in waste stream, and accumulate on collecting plate

• *energy resources that can be replaced at
• a rate equal to, or faster than they are consumed.

• **This includes solar, water, wood, wind,
• tidal forces, and geothermal.

• *energy resources that can not be replaced
• at a rate equal to, or faster than they are consumed. 

• *This includes oil, natural gas, coal, and
• radioactive material.

Peat → Lignite → Subbituminous → Bituminous → Anthracite

• It has undergone low degrees of
• metamorphism; therefore, it has a high volatile content.

• It has undergone high degrees of
• metamorphism; therefore, it has a low volatile content and burns “hot and
• clean.”

• Chemical compounds that consist of
• hydrogen and carbon.

• *Petroleum, also known as crude oil, is a
• hydrocarbon with the chemical formula ranging from C5H12 to C18H38

• They are composed of sand and shale particles coated with bitumen, a viscous mixture of
• long chain hydrocarbons.

*They have to be mixed with steam to extract the bitumen, which is then refined.

*Creates toxic sludge, greenhouse gases, contaminates water, and destroys boreal forest in Canada where most of reserves are.

*sedimentary rock rich in kerogen (organic chemical compound). 

• *Large reservoirs of oil shales
• occur in western U.S.

*Might yield several trillion gallons of oil

• *Mining is expensive, uses vast quantities of water contributes to air and water
• pollution, and produces huge quantities of waste.

• *Most commonly used fuel is U235, a naturally occurring radioactive isotope
• of uranium.

*When struck by neutrons, radioactive uranium atoms undergo nuclear fission, releasing energy and more neutrons.

*Triggers nuclear chain reaction

• *70% of nuclear power plants
•   *Water is circulated through core to absorb heat from fuel rods and then pumped to
• steam generator where it heats a secondary loop

*Steam from secondary loop drives high-speed turbine producing electricity.

• Energy released when two smaller atomic nuclei fuse into one large nucleus.
• Energy in sun, hydrogen bombs.

using absorptive structures with no moving parts to gather and hold heat

pump heat-absorbing medium through a collector, rather than passively collecting heat in a stationary object

• •releases some pollutants, but far below
• conventional fuel levels.

• *Human Displacement
• *Ecosystem Destruction
• *Wildlife Losses
• *Large-Scale Flooding due to Dam Failures
• *Sedimentation
• *Herbicide Contamination
• *Evaporative Losses
• *Nutrient Flow Retardation

*tide flows through turbines, creating electricity

•Requires a high tide/low-tide differential of several meters

*a measure of energy produced compared to energy consumed.