Reading...
Play button
Play button
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
29 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
What is the energy balance theory of climate change?
|
change in surface temp (response) = climate sensitivity (depends on feedback) x climate forcing (change in energy balance)
|
|
|
Climate forcing is
|
exterinally imposed change in planetary energy balance units. Techincal term: Radiative forcing
|
|
|
Date from last ice age is
|
quite uncertain
|
|
|
Empirical means based on ______ no _______
|
data, models
|
|
|
LGM stands for
|
Last Glacial Maximum
|
|
|
Weather is
|
What happens at one point in time and space.
|
|
|
Climate is
|
the statistics of weather, the range over which weather varies.
|
|
|
Challenge of global climate modeling
|
many more earth-simulated components must be accurately simulated than for weather models
|
|
|
What controls the rate at which the earth system warms in response to a positive climate forcing?
|
The need to heat the ocean.
|
|
|
How long would it take to heat the atmosphere by 1K?
|
30 days
|
|
|
How long would it take to heat the surface ocean by 1K?
|
3 years
|
|
|
How long would it take to heat the entire ocean by 1K?
|
130 years
|
|
|
Surface ocean provides thermal inertia on a time scale of
|
several years
|
|
|
Deep ocean provides thermal inertia on a time scale of
|
many centuries
|
|
|
Oceans have a ______ _____ stabilizing effect on the earth.
|
very strong
|
|
|
Committed warming is
|
the equilibrium warming if forcing stayed at its current level (e.g. no further emissions)
|
|
|
Global scale feedbacks...
|
control climate sensitivity
|
|
|
Three key feedbacks are
|
water vapor, ice-albedo, cloud
|
|
|
Low clouds mean
|
Big albedo effect, small greenhouse effect, overall cooling.
|
|
|
High clouds mean
|
Small albedo effect, big greenhouse effect, overall warming.
|
|
|
More clouds or fewer high clouds means ________ effect, ________ feedback
|
cooling, negative
|
|
|
Fewer low clouds or more high clouds means ______ effect, _______ feedback
|
warming, positive
|
|
|
Which feedback affects climate sensitivity the most?
|
Water vapor
|
|
|
Changing of _____ _______ will change the ______ over which weather variations occur.
|
energy balance, range
|
|
|
Uncertainty in 40 year climate forecasts comes mainly from
|
climate sensitivity
|
|
|
Uncertainty in 100 year climate forecasts comes mainly from
|
Human GHG Emissions and climate sensitivity
|
|
|
In this statement: Given that water varpor is the most dominant GHG, changing CO2 cannot causes substantial climate change.
What is incorrect? |
The logic is wrong. Water vapour is the most dominant GHG, but the increase in atmospheric CO2 from human activities causes climate forcing large enough to cause a change in climate. Most dominant GHG is irrelevant.
|
|
|
We have been in a warm, interglacial for the past ________ years.
|
10,000
|
|
|
Natural climate changes of the last ______ are as big as the changes forecast by the IPCC for the 21st century under BAU scenarios.
|
100,000 (Going back 100,000 years takes you into the last ice age)
|
