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64 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Anthropogenic Source
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Pollution from human activity
Smoke stack emissions, tailpipe emissions, airplanes, etc. |
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Natural Source
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Pollution from natural source
Methane from farms, dust from sand dunes, volcanoes, etc. |
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Smokestack Plume -- Stable Air
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No vertical motion, stagnant or horizontal fanning
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Smokestack Plume -- Low-alt unstable air
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Spreads out below the inversion layer (fumigation)
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Smokestack Plume -- Unstable Air
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Pollution can go wherever, often looping due to waves in the air
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Urban Heat Island
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Urban area is warmer than surrounding country.
Rising air causes an inward breeze Out of town factories pollute city Pollution is trapped under inversion top |
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London Smog (sulferous)
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SO2, Sooty Particles
Recognized Centuries Ago Cool temperature High humidity Early morning is peak polltuion Dark & Foggy Radiation Inversion |
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LA Smog (photochemical)
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Organic pollutants, NOx
Ozone Warm temperature Bright Sunlight Afternoon is peak of pollution subsidence inversion |
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Acid-Base Scale
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0-14 pH scale
7 = Regular Water < 7 -- Acidic (more protons) > 7 -- Basic (fewer protons) |
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Acid Rain
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pH of 4-5
Big contributors: sulfuric acid and nitric acid Secondary pollutants from sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. |
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Net Effect of Acid Rain on Acidity
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pH of rain is rising!!
So, the clean air act is working. Acid Rain is strongest in Northeast (Ohio, Pennsylvania) Still below pH of 5 here |
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Yucky Effects of Acid Rain
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Changes acidity of soil
Soil nutrients can be leached away Fish eggs will not hatch Biodiversity is reduced Kills off some insect life Soil microbes can die out Increased oxidation of iron Reacts with calcium in stone |
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Air Pollution Researchers (fun, exciting job)
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Take measurements of air quality
Do a lot of meteorology - Back trajectories tell pollutant source - Forward trajectories tell pollutant destination Do climate studies - Longterm influences of air pollution and long term trends in pollution levels |
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What is Ozone?
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three oxygen atoms bonded together
O3 |
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Where is Ozone
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Troposphere (BAD)
Stratsophere (GOOD) |
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What does Ozone do?
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Absorbs harmful UV sunlight but is bad for our delicate lungs.
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Ozone Loss vs. Latitude
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Most of the downward trend in ozone content is occurring at high latitudes.
- 50% loss over Antarctica since 1970 Biggest loss in spring, then a recovery |
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Ozone Hole
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Lasts for a few months each year in Polar Spring (sept. - nov.)
Overall downward trend of 2% a decade |
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Chemical Destroyer Mechanisms
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Atoms/Molecules that react easily with ozone
Chlorine (biggest source is CFCs), Nitric Oxide, Hydroxyl |
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Catalytic Cycle
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CDMs consume ozone but are not destroyed. One atom/molecule can destroy thousands of O3 molecules.
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Why Springtime at the Poles?
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Release of destroyer chemicals from stable forms need two things: UV sunlight and a sruface.
UV light is in the stratosphere Surface = Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). |
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Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs).
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Requires very cold temperatures.
Only happen without sunlight in polar winter over Antarctica! |
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Koppen climate Classification system
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Grouped the world into 5 major climate types
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Koppen Group A
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Tropical moist climates
Average temp. > 64F |
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Koppen Group B
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Dry climates
Evaporation and transpiration exceed precipitation |
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Koppen Group C
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Moist mid-latitude climates with mild winters
Average temp of coldest month between 27 and 64 F |
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Koppen Group D
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Moist mid-latitude climates with severe winters.
Warmest month exceeds 50F and coldest month below 27F |
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Koppen Group E
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Polar Climates
Warmest month has avg temperature below 50F |
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Global Temperatures
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Largely controlled by latitude with slight modifications due to ocean currents and mountains
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Global Precipitation
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Global circulation patterm creates overall pattern with modifications from ocean currents and mountain ranges
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Some evidence of climate change
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Tree rings, glacial ice cores, ocean sediments, radiocarbon dates of organic material, pollen samples, sedimentary rock records, historical records of crops, droughts, and floods
big one: isotope ratios |
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The Faint Young Sun Paradox
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Sun was not always as bright as it is now.
-- Maybe 70% of its value at formation Earth's equilibrium temperature should be below freezing. We avoided this "snowball earth" because of the Greenhouse effect and the presence of CO2 in the atmosphere. |
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History of the Atmosphere
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Lots of CO2 in the air. How?
--Atmospheric Source: volcanism (release of CO2) -Atmospheric sink: weathering (reabsorption into the rock) Increased plant life then converted this to oxygen. |
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Plate Tectonics
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CONTINENTS ON THE MOVE!
Evidence? Volcanism history, mountain range ages, subduction zones, magnetism of rocks |
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Dinosaur Extinction Theories
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Asteriod hit Earth creating a haze layer causing intense but brief climate change.
Huge volcanic eruptions caused intense but brief climate change Small mammals ate the dinosaur eggs Earth's orbit changed, ice caps formed, ocean levels dropped Methane release from deep sea algae deposits Over-foraging led to mass starvation Nearby supernova bathed earth in deadly radiation |
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Temperatures and CO2 Levels
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Correlation is extremely high - every peak and valley matches up.
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Milankovitch Theory
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Climate varies because of orbital changes
- Amount of sunlight reaching earth is different - Distribution and timing of sunlight is different |
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Eccentricity
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Non-circular orbit varies in its non-circularity by a tiny a bit.
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Axial Tilt
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The present 23 degree tilt of Earth's rotation axis is not a constant
Cycles every 41,000 years or so from 21.5 to 24.5 |
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Precession of Perihelion
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Whole ellipse is wobbling like a hula hoop around sun.
Timing of seasons relative to eccentricity reverses every 23,000 yrs |
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Younger Dryas Period
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Cold period of 1000 yrs as Earth was emerging from last ice age.
Caused by fresh water ice melt shutting off the North Atlantic current system. Fast change Named after arctic flower when it was found south of usual location. |
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27 day Solar Rotation Cycle
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sun's rotation about its axis...sunspots coming in and out of view
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154 Day Cycle
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Seen in solar data but no obvious climate connection
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10-11 Year Sunspot cycle
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Small but definite climate signal - sometimes positive, sometimes negative
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80-90 Year Cycle
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Envelope of sunspot peak values - shows up a little bit in some climate data
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Maunder Minimum
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1650 - 1700
Very few sunspots Slightly less sunlight Slight dip in temperature |
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Features of the last 2000 yrs
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Grand maximum around 1000 AD
Little Ice AGE around 1600 AD Solar causes? Maybe. They correspond to carbon isotope solar proxies. |
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Temperature and Volcanoes
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Massive, equatorial erupitons cause aerosol haze to form in the stratosphere (dust/ash sulfur dioxide haze). Reduced global temperatures for 1-2 years by 0.5-2 degrees C
Miniscule CO2 released by volcanoes but it adds up |
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Cloud Feedback
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A warmer planet leads to more evaporation and a more active water cycle, hence more/thicker clouds!
Net cooling effect since shortwave radiation forcing (reflection) is larger than the longwave radiation forcing (trapping). |
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Air Pollution and its Effect on Climate
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Air pollution is declining since the EPA creation in 1970
Aerosols play a significant role in counteracting GHG warming. |
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Positive Feedback Loop
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Once perturbed, a system will continue to shift in that direction.
Counteracted by negative feedback loops. |
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CO2 in the Atmosphere
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Annual variation and an overall upward trend.
Decay in plant life leads to an increase in C02 in the fall/winter while photosynthesis decreases it in spring/summer Upward trend is due to man made emissions =( |
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Full Terrestrial Carbon Cycle
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\\/// dont know \\\//
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1000 Yrs of Carbon Dioxide
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Flat for a looooong time and growing now due to human activity
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Temperature Modeling: Natural forcing
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Overpredicted an early 1900s rise and missed late 1900s rise
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Temperature Modeling: Anthropogenic forcing
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No rise at all until after 1950 then a lot
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Temperature Modeling: Natural forcing and Anthropogenic forcing combined result
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Matches the observations quite well, including the dip around 1950 and the recent fast rise.
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Climate Predictions: 2100
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Probable temperature increase of 3C - >5C if we do nothing!
Greater increase in the Northern hemisphere (4C) and North Polar Region about 6C Sea Level: Probable increase of 80 cm....utoh. North Atlantic current decrease of 10-20%! |
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Sources of GHGs
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Carbon dioxide and fossil fuel emissions --> 56.6%
Energy supply and transportation industries |
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CO2: USA vs. the WORLD!
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US emissions per capita up 25% over 50 years
Global emissions per capital up 75% over 50 years US is world leader in per capitaa emissions China just passed USA in total output |
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Air Pollution
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Airborne "bad thing" with adverse health effects to humans, plants, buildings, environment
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Sunspots
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Huge magnetic storms on the sun that show up as cooler (darker) regions on the Sun's surface. They occur in cycles, with the number and size reaching a maximum approximately every 11 years
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Pleistocene epoch
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Continental glaciers alternately advanced and retreated over large portions of North America and Europe.
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CFCs
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• They are chemically inert so they can survive their journey into the troposphere and make it to the stratosphere
• They then mix to all latitudes and sunlight and PSCs break them down and release CL! Natural CL sources don’t survive tropospheric chemistry; the stratospheric CL is dominated by CFCs. |
