Midterm Questions

Front 1

Define Stock

Back 1

Amount in a particular place and time. Eg. Amount of Co2 in the atmosphere is a stock

Front 2

Define Flow

Back 2

Amount entering or leaving a stock at a particular time

Front 3

Define equilibrium in terms of stocks and flows

Back 3

A system is in equilibrium when change over time equal 0. Or when rate(in)=rate(out)

Front 4

Amplifying feedback

Back 4

The changing stock causes to push the system in the direction of the initial disturbance.

Front 5

Stabilizing feedback

Back 5

The changing stock causes to push the system in the opposite direction of the initial disturbance.

Front 6

Define Kirchoff's Law

Back 6

Abs=, absorbtion equals emisivity, therefore the same about of energy absorbed will be emitted

Front 7

What is the solar constant for Earth? What is its intensity?

Back 7

S=1360 W/m^2 (total energy emitted by the sun), Intensity=240 W/m^2 (solar energy per meter sq)

Front 8

What is S a function of, what is I a function of?

Back 8

S is a function of distance away from the sun as well as the Earth's size, I is only a function of distance away from the sun.

Front 9

What is the Greenhouse effect?

Back 9

A total difference in the outgoing radiation with the radiation being emitted from the ground.

Front 10

What three factors is the surface temperature of the Earth determined by?

Back 10

number of layers in atmosphere, solar constant, albedo

Front 11

Define forcing with feedback

Back 11

Forcing: a process that changes Earth's temperature but does not react to the changes in the temperature.

Feedback: Responds to changes in Earth's temp and can change the temp in reaction.

Front 12

What are the four major greenhouse gasses?

Back 12

H20, CO2, CH4, O3

Front 13

What is a greenhouse gas?

Back 13

Gasses that absorb and emit radiation in the long-wave

Front 14

What is the atomic window+wavelengths?

Back 14

At 800-1000cm-1, satellites can get a clear view of the temperature of Earth's surface. i.e. there are no gases absorbing and emiting at this particular wavelength

Front 15

Brightness temperature

Back 15

Temperature that a black body would need to be at to emit at a particular wavelength and flux.

Front 16

Kinetic temperature

Back 16

Actual temperature of an object at emissivity of 1, the kinetic temperature will be equal to the brightness temp.

Front 17

What happens to the emission of radiation by CO2 at 666 cm-1?

Back 17

CO2 absorbance spikes at 666cm-1 where it acts close to a black body. (Its transmittance) becomes close to 0. Since absorption is high, emitance will be high as well.

Front 18

How is the Ozone spike at 990 cm-1 differennt than the CO2 spike.

Back 18

At 990cm-1 Ozone's transmittance increases by 70%, acting opposite of a black body.

Front 19

What is the difference between Ozone in the stratosphere vs. troposphere?

Back 19

Ozone in the stratosphere absorbs high-energy ultra-violet light before the reach earth's surface. Ozone produced in the troposphere is usually from smog and causes health problems.

Front 20

Describe water as a greenhouse gas

Back 20

Water is the most abundant greenhouse gas but does not drive global warming due to the ability to shed excess water in the atmosphere as rain. Amount of water vapour held depends on air temperature

Front 21

How does water impose an amplyfying feedback on earth's temperature?

Back 21

Water is held in the atmosphere and heats up atmosphere which in turn causes more water to be held in the atmosphere due to temp increase with further increases the temperature of the atmosphere.

Front 22

Compare the half-life of ozone to nitrous oxide

Back 22

Ozone has an extremely quick half-life (one week) while Nitrous oxide produced by fertilizers has a half-life of about 100 years

Front 23

Why is Carbon dioxide such an important greehouse gas?

Back 23

70% of anthropogenic emissions are CO2, CO2 does not oxidize or decay to form other molecules.

Front 24

What is the ppm increase of carbon dioxide per year and how many Gt's are released into the atmosphere?

Back 24

2 ppm increase/year. 37 Gt carbon dioxide into atmosphere/ year and 10Gt carbon

Front 25

How much of Co2 we release into the atmosphere stays within the atmosphere?

Back 25

About half

Front 26

Band saturation

Back 26

When a certian wavelength has absorbed its maximum in CO2. However, increasing CO2 broadens the band with, allowing more Co2 to stay in the atmospher .

Front 27

Which is radiative forcing log-based instread of linear?

Back 27

Due to band saturation, if we doubled the amount of Co2 in the atmosphere, we wouldn't double the Green house effect, eventually the amount of radiation added would get smaller and smaller IF the absorbitin band stayed constant which it does not

Front 28

Hadley cells and advection

Back 28

Advection is the transport of heat by atmosphere or ocean. Hadley cells transport heat away from equator and towards poles preventing boiling at the equator.

Front 29

Convection and lapse rate

Back 29

Lapse rate is the change in temperature with atmospheric height. Radiative lapse rate, is -16K/km, however with the presence of conduction transporting warm air upwards, lapse rate is closer to -6.5 or -8 K/km

Front 30

Dry adiabatic lapse rate with moist adiabatic lapse rate

Back 30

Dry (-10 K/km): lapse rate of the atmosphere if it were completely dry without clouds.

Moist (-6K/km): lapse is less caused by the condensation of water vapour which vibrates the water molecules which warms the surrounding air.

Front 31

Low clouds with high clouds and their effect on climate.

Back 31

Low clouds: (below 2km) Highly reflective of visible light, high emisivity so absorb and emit long-wave radiation back to space and provide a cooling effect.

High clouds: (above 6km) wispy and semi-transparent with low albedo, have crystals which absorb in the long-wave. Most greenhouse gases lie below and therefore they reemit gasses back to earth

Front 32

Climate forcing

Back 32

Changes in flux out the top of earth's atmosphere

Front 33

Climate sensitivity

Back 33

Depends on how much the temperature much change to accommodate changes in radiatative forcing.

Front 34

What causes runaway feedback?

Back 34

If the value for climate sensitivity is negative

Front 35

Plank feedback mechanism

Back 35

Stabilizing mechanism: if T increases, the outgoing radiation increases due to Plank's equation

Front 36

Heat capacity and ocean heat content

Back 36

Heat capacity of climate is dominated by the ocean, the ocean can absorb much more heat (4x heat capactiy) as well as mixing causes heat to be distributed.