EES Exam 3

Ideal Gas Law

PV=nRT / where p is pressure, V is volume, n is the number of moles of gas molecules, R is the ideal gas constant (8.314 J/K-1mol-1) and T is temperature (in kelvins) mass of atmosphere is in the bottom 12km - this is because it is a gas and the weight of gas above exerts pressure on the gas below, causing it to compress and become dense and warm up the atmosphere is not inert / it moves and undergoes many chemical reactions driven by sunlight and temp changes, interactions of diff air masses, emissions of human made chemicals etc

LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design / STEPS building : water saving, energy efficiency, materials selection

Methane hydrates

Methane molecule trapped in water ice structure Forms at 1000 m ocean depth in narrow P-T window HUGE amount of methane stored along continental margins (Twice all other fossil energy sources combined)

Montreal Protocol

(1987) phase-out of ozone depleting substances (CFCs) but developing nations still make and export CFCs

Clean Air Act

(CAA, 1970) set emission standards for cars and limits for release of air pollutants reduce sulfur and nitrogen oxides (from coal-burning power plants and other fossil sources) / led to a dramatic reduction in severity of acid rain in eastern US / scrubbers on smokestacks now remove sulfur from flue gas but CO2 is still released scrubbers combine with sulfur with calcium carbonate from limestone to make flue-gas desulfurization gypsum when then mixed with water (goes into walls) sulfur mixes with calcium carbonate to make calcium sulfate and then that combines with water to make gypsum / gypsum is used by wallboard manufacturers Reduced specific emissions by 50% by 2000

conduction

1. transfer of heat / when two substances of diff temps are put into contact --> heat can flow from higher-temp substance to lower causing them to equilibrate at intermediate temp

heat radiation

2. transfer of heat / hot matter emits infrared radiation as electrons change energy levels and emit photons and this can transfer energy + warm up nearby matter when its electrons absorb the photons ex: old radiators

Convection

3. transfer of heat / transfer of heat vertically / as a result of less dense material expanding and buoyantly rising to take place of cooler material (heat rises, cold sinks)

Radon

A colorless, odorless, radioactive gas that forms naturally in the uranium-238 decay series uranium occurs naturally within the earth and fits into structure of potassium / as it decays it goes through a series of transformations through alpha and beta decays, eventually making radon-222 = a gas that commonly enter basements through the soil it was never a concern before cause basements were leaky / drafty so high concentrations never accumulated / but as housing efficiency grew and basements were properly sealed --> radon seemed into basements through foundation cracks and built high concentrations EPA threshold = 4 picocuries per liter the health risk posed by radon is that with a half life of only a few days --> it decays into polonium-218 which is just a few minutes decays, emitting an alpha particle (helium nucleus) / it is this alpha particle that within just a few minutes in small quarters (like in lungs) can cause cell damage by breaking up DNA strands but changes of getting lung cancer are low but smoking cigs increases ones chance so basements need a blower fan to vent out the space so it can dissipate into the atmosphere and complete its radioactive decay outside that will finally end in lead-206 (stable) but if alpha decay than lead-214 radium to radon's daughter - Polonium, decays quickly and releases an energetic alpha particle which can break down DNA

Natural gas

A fossil fuel in the gaseous state / when oil matures further under high pressure and temp deep underground, carbon atoms no longer bond to each other, becoming surrounded only by hydrogen atoms --> this makes natural gas or methane that rises to the top of reservoirs and often sits on top of the oil but still trapped by caprock natural gas is the most evolved fossil fuel and because it has the lowest ratio of carbon to hydrogen, it burns the most cleanly - forming only water and CO2 as a result of burning however it's hard to transport and doesn't sell as high as oil, so for years, it was burned off from top of oil reservoirs - so now companies have to go through great pains to extract natural gas from "unconventional" means - like fracturing shale source rocks natural gas provides the most energy per carbon dioxide molecule emitted from burning / second reason it's the cleanest fossil fuel many chemical reactions happen to release energy / coal is carbon, so when its combined with oxygen, every reaction produces a molecule of co2 methane is CH4 so when a molecule of methane is combined with oxygen, the carbon makes Co2 but the four hydrogens combine with oxygen to make 2 water molecules, so there is a total of 3 reactions that produce energy for every Co2 emitted, so we get about twice as much energy per CO2 released from natural gas than coal the water emitted will rain out of atmosphere in normal hydrologic cycle but the CO2 remains in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas

Antarctic Ozone Hole

A region with extreme stratospheric ozone depletion over the Antarctic continent even tho the Antarctic has no real source of CFCs it that typically develops annually between late August and early October, and generally ends in mid-November. Ozone thinning is attributed to the action of chlorine liberated from a group of chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's). in the severe cold and dark of the Antarctic winter with temps plunging -80c, a strong system of winds called the polar vortex develops that cuts off the Antarctic from air masses to the north / the stratosphere becomes so cold that sulfuric acid freezes out, nitric acid condenses and a special set of chemical reactions takes place in polar stratospheric clouds chlorine remains in the stratosphere, tied up in reservoir species such as HCl (hydrochloric acid) and chlorine nitrate which in the presence of ice particles in the polar stratospheric clouds, slowly convert to chlorine gas, nitric acid and water however when the sun returns in the spring - the sunlight dissociates Cl2 and because there is little NOx left after the cold winter to make chlorine nitrate and thus act as a sink for chlorine, Cl is freely available to destroy ozone this rapidly brings the ozone level in the antarctic stratosphere to extremely low concentrations and essentially creates a seasonal hole in the protective ozone layer but scientists believe the hole with heal in coming decades with the cessation of CFC use but this could affect the coldness of the arctic climate hat has been held "artificially" cold by the ozone hole - so will start to warm

polar vortex

A system of strong, cold stratospheric winds that circle the poles (west to east) bounded by a jet stream that separates the polar vortex from lower latitude air masses

atmosphere

A thin layer of gases surrounding Earth / composed mostly of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), argon (.9%), and carbon dioxide (.04% and rising) / this accounts for about 99.94% of the atmosphere / the rest is composed of numerous trace gases such as methane (also rising) and CFCs, oxides of sulfur and nitrogen and sulfur hexafluoride, there is also water vapor inert gases = neon, helium, xenon atmosphere is divided into layers: troposphere --> stratosphere (contains ozone layer) --> mesosphere --> thermosphere pressure controls the movement of the atmosphere and temp controls pressure at the ground / because the atmosphere is a gas and the overlying weight of air exerts pressure on the underlying air, as you rise in elevation from the ground, pressure decreases from about 1 bar (1013 millibars) at sea level to about 1/5 to 1/10 at the tropopause (less pressure in the tropics and more at the poles)

atmospheric circulation

Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air / driven by differential pressures caused by uneven net heating of the land surface, ocean surface, and atmosphere itself by sunlight by day and net cooling by infrared radiation out to space by night atmospheric circulation patterns - air is heated most in the tropics, so it rises there and moves toward the poles, where it sinks again / however bc the earth is spinning on its axis, the Coriolis effect causes the air to deflect and sink at +-30 where most deserts are found / rising again at +-60, it finally sinks again at poles in 3 dimensions - the air spirals around the planet in various cells of the global atmospheric circulation system (intertropical convergence zone, hadley cell, mid-latitude cell, polar cell) SEE PAGE 179 this circulation system creates some general climate belts around the earth / the equator, warm moist air rises and cools and because cool air cannot hold as much water vapor as warm air can, the vapor precipitates out as rain --> this leads to tropical forests at 30 north and south, cool dry air from high altittude sinks down to the surface and warms up / because warm air can hold and evaporate more water vapor than cool air can, the already dry air becomes even farther from saturation and maintains low humidity of the deserts found at these latitutdes at 60 north and south, rising air again cools and precipitates and we find temperate rain forests of the pacific northwest / the sinking cold, dry air at the poles is exceedingly dry, so precipitation rates there (as snow) are extremely low the only reason we find glaciers in Antartica is that the snow never melts and hundreds of thousands of years of accumulation are found in a single glacier as a result of the air at the equator, there is very little wind there and sailors call this region the doldrums, where their sails hang slack the same is true at 60 but somewhat less sailing occurs there at 30 descending air also does not cause wind and these are called the horse latitude however in the regions between 30 and 60, air moves along the surface in a remarkably steady / reliable wind called the westerlies, while from 30 to the equator blow the trade winds, so useful for merchant sailing ships because the sun warms the tropics, the air there is the warmest and least dense / this makes a low pressure area at the ground surface into which the wind flows (trade winds) / the cool dense air that sinks at 30 causes atmospheric pressure to be high at these latitudes / low pressure is found again at 60 and high pressure at the poles

Photochemcial Smog

Complex mixture of air pollutants produced in the lower atmosphere by the reaction of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides under the influence of sunlight the brown haze / smog is seen in cities and is produced by a number of chemical reactions b/t products of fossil fuel burning and sunlight - all burning involves combination with oxygen (oxidation) / however, 78% of atmosphere is made up of nitrogen so high-temp combustion of fuels also causes nitrogen to combine with oxygen, leading to formation of NO2 if left unperturbed, NO2 in the atmosphere will dissolve with water and eventually make acid rain / however, sunlight (on hot, summer day) can break down NO2 and release individual oxygen atoms, which can then combine with oxygen O2 molecules to form ozone morning traffic in urban areas burns hydrocarbons at high temps and thus releases NO2 / by noon, the intense sunlight breaks down NO2 and leads to a build up of ozone / by evening, the reactivity of ozone leads to a reduction in ozone concentration and without bright sunlight to create more, ozone concentration declines into the night, and starts the cycle over again the next day

CAFE standards

Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards established fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars and light trucks. The fuel economy ratings for a manufacturer's entire line of passenger cars must currently average at least 27.5 mpg for the manufacturer to comply with the standard but by 2025 cars to have 54.5mpg and these fuel economy standards are rising

2nd law of thermodynamics

Energy cannot be changed from one form to another without a loss of usable energy / allow 1st law allows for conversion os energy, the 2nd exacts a "tax" from any conversion --> you can't convert all energy into a new form, there is always some unusable heat generated, so it's never 100% efficient energy conversion --> degrades "quality" of energy involved, thus increasing entropy of the system energy quality - the extent to which energy is concentrated in space nuclear energy involves a lot of energy in a small space (atomic nucleus), and thus is very high quality / after a nuclear reaction there is less nuclear energy and more electromagnetic energy (light) and heat (molecular kinetic energy) which are both far less concentrated forms of energy and thus lower quality and you can't go back to original situation bc you can't use less concentrated energy to make more concentrated energy so the greater dilution of energy in the conversion = the more is wasted as irretrievable heat and thus the lower efficiency of the conversion therefore it would be a waste to use nuclear energy (most highly concentrated energy) to heat a house (most-diluted energy)

electrical energy

Energy caused by the movement of electrons / based on the intermediate-strength force between gravity and nuclear / it's the force of charged particles (like protons + electrons) and electric (electromagnetic) fields causes electrons to seek proximity to protons in atoms / they are prevented from getting too close by limited quantized energy levels that they can occupy and this leads to various arrangements of electrons around a nucleus electromagnetic energy can be transported as photons when electrons shift some of which shine on us as visible light from the sun and serve as basis of life --> photosynthesis motion of electric charges in matter makes the electric currents that drive organisms other kinds of electric potential energy = chemical energy

hydrogen fuel cells

It's just a battery!! (but a potentially good one) Hydrogen and Oxygen are allowed to combine only after electrons move through circuit to provide power. H2 gas contacts platinum catalyst that ionizes to protons and electrons. Only protons are allowed to travel out of anode through membrane to cathode. Electrons must travel through circuit and do work (turn motor, etc.) Then protons and electrons recombine on cathode with oxygen- makes water.

Reduce Product Consumption

Just don't buy so much stuff. Take care of and continue to use the stuff you already have / fix it if it breaks / energy is expended in the mining of raw materials and transporting them to factories, where even more energy is used emergy - the energy embedded in products / the energy required to produce products

Marine hydrokinetic energy

Marine hydrokinetic systems are mechanisms that extract energy from movements of ocean water / it's still theoretical tho one means is to place large turbines (like propellers / windmills) in major ocean currents like the Gulf Stream from which 1- to 50 gigawatts of energy could be extracted another way to obtain energy from the ocean water is from waves that cause floating buoys to rise and fall, driving water through vertical hoses containing impellers (turbines) that drive electric generators alternatively, "heave-surge" devices are semi-submerged tubes that are moored at one end so that passing waves make the sections pivot vertically at each of the connections of the sections / at each joint, hydraulic devices resist this bending motion, forcing fluid through a tube and spinning a turbine to generate electricity

environmental impact of oil production

Oil and Gas Recovery: • Direct land use at well site (or offshore rig) - Disrupts local ecosystems (e.g. Alaska) • Water pollution from well site (oil, salt) • Air pollution • Subsidence due to extraction of subsurface fluids • Oil spills Refining: Fractional distillation separates components of crude oil - then make gas, diesel, petrochemicals • Major air and water pollution impacts Delivery and use: • Oil spills from tankers • Leaks from pipelines • Pollution and Greenhouse warming

natural drivers of climate change (Thousands to hundreds of thousands of years)

Over the course of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, climate change is affected by variations in the earth's orbit around the sun. These variations were first discovered in the 1920s by Milankovitch, who was able to relate orbital variations to geologic evidence of the timing of Pleistocene glaciations. There are three timescales of orbital variability. The first and longest (100,000 yrs) is the shape of the orbit, which is elliptical but with varying eccentricity. The second is the tilt of the axis relative to the plane of the orbit (known as obliquity) / The last, precession, relates to the interaction between the other two because the rotational axis wobbles so that sometimes northern summer occurs when the earth is closet to the sun and other times, northern summer occurs when its is farthest from the sun, reducing seasonality. All three Milankovitch cycles affect global climate but occasionally one frequency more strongly controls glacial-interglacial cycles, and other times, another frequency dominates. On shorter time-scales, solar cycles can also impact climate because they control solar output that's reflected by the number of sunspots. Other natural variations occur that affect the earth's climate system, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

Stratospheric ozone depletion

Ozone is a form of oxygen that contains three oxygen atoms / O2 is strongly bonded and third is weakly bound / in the stratosphere, far above most of the mass of the atmosphere, there is enough air to begin to interact with incoming solar radiation. This is where ozone is formed in an important layer that has protected all life on Earth for billions of years from harmful UV radiation coming from the sun. In the electromagnetic spectrum there are three energy ranges of UV. UVA is the weakest, UVB is medium, and UVC is the strongest. UVC has such high energy that it can break up the bond holding the O2 molecule together, and this means that when oxygen in the atmosphere interacts with UVC, the breaking of the molecular bonds destroys UVC, such that no UVC reaches the planet surface. Instead, it's absorbed in the stratosphere, where free individual oxygen atoms are floating around. They can then find every present O2 molecules and attach weakly, making ozone. Essentially, ozone forms as a result of UVC absorption. At the same time, UVB is streaming down from the sun as well. UVB has a much lower energy than UVC so it cannot break up an O2 bond, but just enough to break off the weak bond that holds the third oxygen in ozone. Consequently, the interaction between ozone and UVB "annihilates" both, with the breaking of the weak bond absorbing the UVB photon. Ultimately, UVC makes ozone in the stratosphere and UVB destroys it. This creates equilibrium so that a constant concentration of ozone is maintained in the stratosphere and little UVB reaches the ground surface where people live - this is the natural situation in which all life evolved

effects of coal

Smog, acid rain, acid mine drainage, waste coal is considered the dirtiest of all fossil fuels because there is usually a large amount of sulfur and nitrogen in it - which when burned makes sulfuric acid and nitric acid, which cause acid rain and other forms of pollution coal produces the least energy per CO2 molecule emitted to the atmosphere, thus enhancing the greenhouse effect and leading to global climate change purest, hardest form of coal - anthracite was found in PA / other types like bituminous and dirtiest - lignite, found in America and around world mining of coal not only increases CO2 in atmosphere but has also led to denudation of large areas of countryside in WV and PA and the streams that flow past former coal mines become contaminated with acids - acid mine drainage / makes stream water acidic with sulfuric acid / iron-rich --> yellow / orange water coal is burned in electric power plants to provide electricity to grid / cheap but if you factor in the costs of cleaning up coal mines to prevent acid mine drainage / treating rivers = expensive How to improve utility of coal? • clean it before you burn it • burn at lower temperature to reduce NOx emission • add expensive scrubbers to smokestacks (then deal with the sludge) • coal gasification

photovoltaic cell

Solar energy cells / semiconductor, usually made from silicon, that collect solar rays (sunlight / photons of light) to generate electricity In a photovoltaic cell, a silicon lattice is "doped" with impurities with 5 electrons in their outer valence shell in slabs attached to slabs with 3 electrons in their outer shells. Although the charge is neutral, there is no place in the lattice structure for the extra electrons of the N-type side to make bonds, so they are free to roam. The P-type side, however, has too few electrons in the outer shell, so the lattice bonds are incomplete. The extra electrons from the P side then find a "home" on the N-type side to make all the bonds with the silicon lattice. Consequently, with more electrons than protons on one side, and more protons than electrons on the other side, an electric field is produced. When the sunlight hits the N-side of the cell, a certain wavelength knocks the extra electrons out of their "homes" in the bonds within the silicon lattice. Now that they are free again, these electrons find themselves in an electric field and move in response to this electric force, thus making a current. The current then flows through a wire to a battery, light, motor, etc. to do work on the way back to the P side, where the electrons find that all the lattice positions are filled, and then return to the N side to complete the lattice structure. They then wait for another proton of light to knock them out of position again, which will cause the cycle to restart. Only 10-15% efficient, though. Only one wavelength used.

Greenhouse Effect

The atmosphere contains "greenhouse gases" that are transparent to visible light from sun, yet are partially opaque to the infrared radiation emitted by the earth. So visible light reaches and heats the earth's surface, but the reradiated infrared gets trapped in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases keep the earth a comfortable temperature but also reduce the diurnal temperature variability. The two main greenhouse gases are water and carbon dioxide, and if not for these, the earth would be nearly 33 degree Celsius colder. While water vapor in the atmosphere is an important greenhouse gas, its residence time is very short because it rains out regularly. Because of this, its concentration in the atmosphere is determined by atmospheric temperature distribution, evaporative moisture sources and condensation. Carbon dioxide, however, has a very long residence time in the atmosphere because it's not removed as easily. The key sinks for anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are uptake by the surface ocean (solubility pump) and uptake by the northern hemisphere forest. Water and carbon dioxide absorb outgoing infrared radiation by increasing their molecular vibrational modes, and heat up as a result of absorbing the infrared photons. Because these molecules have a specific mass, bond strength and structure, they can absorb only a specific set of frequencies of infrared. In the earth's infrared radiation spectrum there is consequently a gap in absorption by water and carbon dioxide between 8 and 12-micron wavelength, and through this atmospheric window, radiation escapes and lessens the strength of the overall greenhouse effect. However, other gases, like anthropogenic CFCs, do absorb in that frequency range and thus close the gap and increase the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide absorbs most of the outgoing infrared radiation that falls within its absorption spectrum; so as more carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, additional absorption occurs around the edges of the absorption curve, as wavelengths in the core of the CO2 absorption spectrum are already absorbing most of the outgoing infrared this additional absorption is sufficient enough to cause additional warming that triggers a positive feedback with water vapor, the primary greenhouse gas

nuclear energy

The potential energy stored in the nucleus of an atom / acts only in short distance rather than decaying as a square of distance / it binds protons and neutrons together in an atomic nucleus and distance can store great quantities of energy

1st law of thermodynamics

The principle of conservation of energy. Energy can be transferred and transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed we can allow something to fall toward the ground and convert the gravitational PE it has to kinetic energy and then convert it again to another form of energy like electrical this is how a hydroelectric power plant works - water falls downward, losing gravitational PE to kinetic and converts its gained kinetic energy to electricity by doing work on a turbine that drives a generator wind can transfer its KE to a windmill blade, thus turning a generator to make electricity or lifting water from a well against gravity

Obliquity

The tilt of the Earth's rotational axis relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun / it increases and decreases with a period of 41,000 years

Energy payback ratio

The usable energy obtained from an energy source divided by the energy required to extract and provide that energy if the ratio is greater than 2, it may be worth pursuing as a source of energy but as humans have evolved and are using more complicated ways to get energy (went from human labor gathering fuel wood to petroleum / natural gas / uranium) this ratio is increasing bc more energy-intensive activities are being accomplished this can be attributed to easy access to high-grade coal, giant oil fields, major hydroelectric plants, huge wind turbines however, as fossil fuel resources are being increasingly depleted, more energy is required to extract energy resources like coal, oil and gas, resulting in a decline in EPR - which also drives up the cost of energy during industrial revolution - when coal replaced wood (it was mined and burned cheaply) which increased EPR / petroleum did the same and transportation energy costs must be factored into EPR calculations so energy sources near markets have an advantage development of electric transmission and distribution systems also helped increase EPR as it enabled generation of electricity at centralized and efficient locations nuclear power plants also increased EPR as they produce vast amounts of energy from readily obtained uranium

renewable energy

renewable energy sources produce energy at a rate that can keep up with the rate at which they are used ex: wind that drives windmills that produce electricity by turning generators / no matter how much wind gets used for the windmills - it doesn't deplete the wind ex: biomass burning / when a tree or fallen branch is burned for cooking or heating, another grows to take its place / as long as the global rate of cutting and burning doesn't exceed rate of regrowth --> biomass burning is renewable most renewable energy sources are driven by the sun, including solar, wind, hydropower from dams --> these are all inexhaustible and biomass is the only actually renewable source cause trees have to grow back

active solar energy

The use of energy from solar heating that is intensified by various means. It can boil water, heat other fluids, or even produce electricity directly in a photovoltaic cell active solar technologies include: heating of fluids such as oils and other chemicals that can then be used to boil water to steam or drive turbines and generate electricity / the heating is accomplished by a large arrays of mirrors that focus on a point or pipeline containing fluid active solar technology = photovoltaic cell, which converts sunlight to electricity (not really efficient) / so it can be used anywhere the sun shines, without need for supporting infrastructure - it's become popular in developing world where there are few other options for electricity generation

Stefan-Boltzmann Law

Total power radiated E= σT⁴ the most important negative feedback on the planet is black body radiative energy exchange where σ is a constant with a value of 5.67 times a million things (Js/K/M) and T is temperature in Kelvin / E is the energy emitted per meter squared per sec or the rate of energy emission per area of surface this means that as temperature of an object increases, the energy released (in joules per meter squared per sec increases by the fourth power of the temp if a body is not a perfect "black body" that absorbs all incident radiation with an albedo of 0 at all wavelengths, the energy emitted is somewhat less, but still related to the fourth power of the temperature this establishes a critical negative feedback system in the Earth system and is responsible for keeping Earth's climate relatively stable over the eons / if temp increases for some reason , the planet slowly radiates away more energy and this tends to cool it so that a relatively stable temp is maintained as such, greenhouse gas-induced warming of the earth can increase the temperature, but as it does so, the earth becomes much more efficient at shedding heat by infrared radiation to space this most basic law of physics has enabled the earth to remain at a steady temp, largely between the freezing and boiling points of water for its entire 4.6 billion life however, the various positive feedbacks operating within the earth system are pitted against this fundamental negative feedback, so temp variations do occur and even small global temp / climate variations have led to major disruption of existing ecosystems

Marcellus Shale

a Devonian age fine-grained source rock containing large amounts of natural gas (methane) in the Appalachian basin on NY, PA and West VA / exploitation has led to considerable controversy on economic and environmental grounds Marcellus formation is a source rock, from which the natural gas never (yet) migrated into a more permeable rock, to be trapped by a caprock / this is a clear sign that we are desperately seeking fossil fuels in their original state the problem with doing this is that the source rocks (shales) have low permeability, so gas and oil doesn't move through the rock to enter a well pipe to circumvent this problem --> petroleum engineers have developed a means of creating permeability in rocks where there was none they do this by fracturing the rock with high-pressure water mixed with lubricating fluids and sands / this breaks up the shale so that along a set of fractures, gas can seep through the broken rock and into the well / but it breaks up the rock along only a few planes so it doesn't have good permeability and only a small fraction of the gas can be extracted / to enhance the efficiency - a single well is drilled, from which multiple horizontal drilled arms / spokes are sent to fracture or "frack" a greater area than would be possible from a single vertical hole environmental concerns - destroying ecosystems on surface, but also bc of drilling ppl are worried natural gas (methane) entering aquifers and domestic water supplies (catching on fire)

Chlorfluorocarbons (CFCs)

a class of non-flammable, non-toxic chemicals used as refrigerants and propellants in 20th century until it was discovered that they led to the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer (Ex: freon, CRC11) When CFC's are released to atmosphere, they make their way to the stratosphere and into the ozone layer, where the chlorine is broken from the rest of the CFC molecule by UVC and UVB. Now free for other chemical reactions, the Cl atoms strips off the third O from the ozone to make ClO. as it is energetically favorable, Cl-O is a stronger bond than O-O2, so Cl has destroyed a single ozone molecule. When a ClO encounters a single O atom (created by UVC dissociating O2), the O attached to Cl finds it even more energetically favorable to split off and reattach to the single O to make a new O2 This frees the Cl atom to find another ozone to strip off the O and continue to destroy ozone, thus behaving as a catalyst to deplete the ozone layer if the industry had chosen to use bromofluorocarbons (bromine and not chlorine) - ozone depletion would have been exponentially worse

ozone

a molecule of oxygen (O3) / the first two atoms are bound strongly and the third is more weakly bound to the pair ozone is a highly reactive oxidant and irritates the eyes, causes lung damage and damages a broad spectrum of plants in croplands as well as terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

ground source heat pumps

a system that enhances the efficiency of motor-driven heat pumps for home heating and cooling by providing a base temperature for the compressor for heat exchange for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter the basic idea is to take advantage of the fact that temperature of the ground (at a depth) maintains a constant temperature year round (58 in US and 40s in Alaska) / if this heat can be brought to the surface in the winter, it can heat buildings or at least help so that other means of heating (solar, fossil fuel, electric) have a head start to bring interior spaces to a comfortable temp in winter bringing a room to 58 degrees or more like 50 cause of imperfect heat transfer is helpful to heat up space to 65 degrees / same thing in summer by running (water and anitfreeze) through a loop in the ground, (heat or cold) is brought into building and into a heat exchanger, which preheats or cools air entering a heat pump and into a forced air ventilation system that circulates through a building problems: materials for the loop underground are either plastic or metal, but metal tends to corrode and plastic is a poor heat conductor so its less effective at transferring heat

3rd law of thermodynamics

absolute zero cannot be reached / this is because in order to reach absolute zero, some very cold bit of matter would have to transfer energy (allowed by 1st law) to some other not-as-cold piece of matter (not allowed by 2nd law bc is more concentrated)

potential energy

stored energy / many types = gravitational, electrical, nuclear and "weak" weakest fundamental form is gravity and strongest is nuclear / electrical is intermediate strength force between gravity and nuclear

Coriolis effect

an apparent deflection of the path of an object moving straight, when observed relative to a rotating frame of reference / it causes atmospheric circulation cells to deflect into a specific pattern imagine rotating record player / holding your finger in the center, as you move outwards, the surface of the disk moves more rapidly / and if you were to draw a line with a marker - it would be a spiral bc the earth is a sphere, the same thing happens on earth as air moves north or south / as such air is deflected - toward the west if its moving equatorward and toward the east if its moving poleward (this is bc the earth rotates west to east with the tropics moving much faster than the high latitudes) so air cannot simply rise at the equator and sink at the poles in a single loop that has equatorward - blowing wind at the ground and poleward-blowing wind aloft / it starts out that way but gets deflected by the rotation of the earth by the time the tropical air reaches about 30 north and south in its poleward motion aloft, it has deflected sufficiently to the west and cooled sufficiently at high altitude that it sinks back down to the earth's surface / by the time it reaches about 60 degree north and south in its equatorward motion along the ground, it has delfected to the east and warmed sufficiently to rise again / this makes a set of smaller loops in vertical cross section or atmospheric circulation cells with air rising at the equator, sinking at the 30 degree, rising at 60 degree and sinking at the poles hadley cell loop = between equator and 30 degree / one between the 30 and 60is mid-latitude or ferrel cell and between 60 and pole is the polar cell

tree rings / corals / speleothems

annual growth rings in trees / they are normally wider (faster growth) during warm and wet times and some trees like Bristlecone pines are 5,000 years old corals also have growth rings / corals also preserve isotopic ratios that reflect temp of the water at the time of growth-ring formation water dripping into caves precipitates calcium carbonate and forms stalagmites or speleothems and because the water comes from rain and flows through the land surface and rocks above the cave, the isotopic microstructure of the speleothems reflects the oxygen composition of the rain water as well as the carbon fractionation processes of the terrestrial ecosystem overlying the cave with temporal resolution that can be as fine as weeks / some speleothems can record the passing of hurricanes in the tropics and show hurricane frequency

Forams

another means for observing past climates through analysis of isotopic composition of various organisms, such as marine organisms microorganisms (forams = forminifera) / a single-class phylum of the kingdom protista that primarily lives at the ocean bottom or surface and makes its shells from calcium carbonate, whose isotopic composition reflects the temperature as well as isotopic composition of the ocean at the time that organism lived the carbon and oxygen in their shells reflect the isotopic composition of the ocean surface water when they made their shells the oxygen isotopic composition of water is determined by the amount of glacial ice stored because high-latitude snow and ice has a much lighter isotopic composition than low-latitude rain and this is because as water precipitates from vapor to liquid, the heavy isotope (O-18) changes phase into the liquid earlier than the lighter phase (O-16) - (the more sluggish heavy molecules want to move more slowly, as in the liquid, rather than energetically bouncing around in the gaseous vapor phase)

non-renewable energy sources

any source that is used up faster than it is replenished fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal) as well as uranium used in nuclear fission plants fossil fuels do form slowly over millions of years but with the growing demand for them / they can exceed the rate at which they can be supplied by mining and drilling and then people will have to worry about energy shortages oil / coal and gas also being depleted rapidly

acid rain

aqueous solution that contains free hydrogen ions (protons) / a pH of 7 is neutral on a scale of 1 to 14 / the atmosphere has many chemical constituents along with water and water vapor but one of the main ones is CO2 which dissolves in water and in doing so forms a weak carbonic acid therefore all natural rain is slightly acidic, with a pH of 5.7 or so while increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere might make rain more acidic, there are more severe causes of acid rain fossil fuel burning emits large quantities of SO2 and NO2 and each these dissociates in water to produce sulfuric acid and nitric acid / as a result - highly industrialized parts of the world like US and Europe - the rain has become so acidic that otherwise pristine mountain lakes became acidic enough to kill all wildlife and all microscopic life lakes in Adirondack NY mountains that were full of fish and murky green water from phytoplankton are now crystal clear with no life remaining geology of a lake and surround rocks and soil determine how susceptible a lake is to acid / some rocks buffer acidity (like limestone) / weathering soil cannot buffer acidity humans are not as affected by high acidity but animals and ecosystems / agriculture are

Biomass burning

biomass burning (burning of wood) is the primary energy source in the developing world / the massive scale of deforestation has caused ppl to look elsewhere for biomass energy and sources for biomass other than trees are now being used in some places - fast growing crops are being converted from food crops to energy crops / corn is being processed to produce ethanol = an alcohol that releases energy when burned / ethanol is a contaminant that causes more fossil fuel to be burned controversial - because burning food for energy when some ppl in the world don't have food let alone energy Biofuels- Fire from burning wood Whale oil for light and heat Peat (turf) in Ireland Biodiesel Ethanol from sugar or corn Cellulosic ethanol

Geothermal energy

geothermal energy draws power from the heat of the earth / at great depth, the rocks that make up the earth's mantle are so hot that they are partially molten / while this mantle is normally far too deep to draw energy from on a practical basis, there are many locations where its heat is transported to the surface or near surface by volcanic activity / in these regions - magma heats the near-surface ground water and in some cases the water flashes to steam (and makes geysers) which, when harnessed can be used directly to drive turbines in power plants in other cases, steam is not generated but the hot water can be used for heating buildings in some places, wells are drilled to some depth and water (or other fluids) is pumped to depth until it turns to steam which is then brought back to a power plant to drive the turbines / in these ways, geothermal energy can be used to produce electricity however, most parts of the world don't have volcanoes nearby but they can still benefit from the use of geothermal energy in the form of ground source heat pumps

Gravitational Energy

gravitational potential energy is in our lives everyday / and drives cycle like the hydrologic cycle and wind - when a mass is lifted it stores energy against gravity gravitational attraction (never repulsion) decreases as the square of distances bt 2 masses

EPR analysis

but near the 20th century - most readily available fossil fuel resources were found and exploited and now they need to access less convenient sources which required more energy and reduced EPR (Ex: drilling for oil offshore requires more energy than drilling on land / obtaining gas from shales (source rock rather than reservoir rock) = more energy across US there were also concerns for air quality which lead to restrictions on emission of pollutants - so now coal burning power plants must put into place systems that remove sulfur from flue gas and while it has reduced acid rain, it also reduced EPR and uses more energy than is produced corn derived ethanol is also now considered a a contaminant further reducing EPR nuclear fusion also uses requires more energy than is produced / it requires more energy per magnetic containment of plasmas to create a fusion reaction than is produced other fossil fuels in the same boat photovoltaic electricity production also has a low EPR due to monochromatic solar radiation but research is being done to make this more efficient consider burning of biomass - since the material is already produced (for paper, consumer goods), the waste already exists and can be burned for the mere cost of collection and transportation to the power plant and this enhances EPR to the 20s wind also has a high EPR (20s to 30s) hydropower from dammed rivers has the highest EPR - energy cost of building a dam is large but the operational energy is so small and the facilities last for a long time (over 100 years) so the EPR reaches into the hundreds but there are environmental concerns with building a dam

Centralized vs. distributed energy production

central = central power plant, fossil fuel, nuclear distributive power systems = solar, fuel cells in cars and homes, wind or biomass (renewable)

History of Climate Change

climate change can happen over ten to hundreds of millions of years / glacial ice extent, tree rings, speleothems (stalagmites in caves), ocean and lake sediment cores, isotopes of marine organisms, and ice cores cold times are considered an (ice world) - globally cold conditions, during which extensive continental glaciers (ice sheets) waxed and waned (glacial-interglacial cycles within icehouse times) / we are in an icehouse world now, in an interglacial period, characterized by a cool deep ocean warm times are considered a (greenhouse world) - warm conditions globally, during which there was little polar ice, resulting in a warm deep ocean over the last 10,000 years the global average temp has been about 15 degree c and we have been in an interglacial interval of an icehouse earth climate temp change - like a hockey stick (steady and then some cooling until 1900 and then rapid increase)

polar stratospheric clouds

clouds make up of water, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid that occur in very cold polar winters in the lower stratosphere / the nitric acid precipitates out and is no longer available to combine with chlorine so when the sun comes back out in the spring, chlorine bonds with oxygen --> destroying ozone

gamma radiation

electromagnetic photons (like light, but much higher frequency and energy) emitted during nuclear reactions when nucleons settle into lower nuclear energy levels within the nucleus the nuclear equivalent to visible light being emitted when electrons settle into lower energy levels around a nucleus in an atom

beta radiation

electrons emitted during the nuclear decay of radioactive element

conservation

energy efficiency achieved by minimizing high-quality energy uses to do work / in electric power plants, use waste heat to heat building (cogeneration) most energy is used for heating, industry and transportation - so focus conservation efforts in these sectors

kinetic energy

energy of motion / E = 1/2mv2 heat is the total kinetic energy of molecules and temperature is average kinetic energy of molecules thermal energy is kinetic energy at the molecular level bc when the molecules move or oscillate they carry KE which when aggregated over a material is called heat air resistance and friction convert kinetic energy to heat (2nd law)

Fossil fuels

energy resources derived from the altered remains of living organisms that were buried by sediments and exposed to elevated pressures and temps for millions of years basic forms = oil, natural gas and coal China now no. 1 in CO2 emissions; USA in second position Environmental Impacts of Fossil Fuel Burning Global warming - ice melting - sea level rise - hurricanes and other severe events (floods, droughts, etc.) - disease vectors • Ecosystem disruption - species extinction - fisheries collapse - invasive species - desertification • Air and water pollution - smog - surface and ground water contamination - ozone depletion (leading to UV-induced skin cancer, etc.) - perturbation of biogeochemical cycles (C, N, Si, etc.)

Energy conservation

even though we have sustainable energy sources - it would hard to produce as much energy from these as we have been obtaining from energy in fossil fuels but we are consuming fossil fuels at an alarming rate and if population increases and poverty declines - more of our world will be in a position to use energy so we need to all work to use less energy collectively (energy consumption can be reduced by rearranging layout of homes, businesses and schools so we don't need cars, eliminate single-use zoning which separates residential from business, and use mixed-use zoning that would reduce car travel miles, organize communities on a transportation hub) and individually (individual homes in regards to lighting, heating, ac) more than half of the energy generated in the world is wasted - so by streamlining our processes in industry, agriculture, transportation, buildings and product consumption - we can reduce energy needs without reducing what we do the energy / power saved by doing things differently is called negawatts in that it subtracts from the total energy needed to function

Coal

found all over the world / but not really in middle east coal provides 55-60% of US electricity supply and US imports more than half the oil it consumes 90% of U.S. fossil fuel is coal A fossil fuel that forms underground from decomposed / compressed plant material / usually when plants die - they decompose and oxidize and then turn into CO2 and water but if they are quickly buried by other plants / sediments - they do not oxidize and are preserved over millions of years - high pressure and temps drive off the hydrogen and oxygen from the material --> leaving only carbon behind that become coal Anthracite- purest, hardest, densest, most energy-producing coal (in PA!) Bituminous- soft coal, with some impurities. Less energy per pound Subbituminous- softer still... Lignite- Softest, lightest, with most volatiles and least energy Peat- Not quite coal (yet). Famous in Ireland.

smart growth

strategic community planning to reduce transportation needs and thus energy consumption, enhance ecosystem function, and stabilize hydrology

importance of greenhouse effect

greenhouse effect is important in keeping the earth from freezing and the also reduce diurnal variability / by re-radiating down from the atmosphere back to the Earth's surface, nighttime temps are kept higher than they would if radiational cooling were allowed to fully proceed (clear nights are colder than cloudy ones) - this bc clouds accentuate this effect and re-radiate infrared back to Earth / also notice that because of this dew rarely forms on cloudy nights, while on clear nights it's always present when the ground surface radiates away heat so that its temp falls below the dew point the dew point is the temp below which the air can no longer hold the water vapor it contains and precipitates / when this happens - it rains and when it happens on ground surface - it makes dew but changes in greenhouse = concerning

alpha radiation

helium nuclei emitted during a nuclear decay of a radioactive element

Advection

horizontal movement of air transfer of heat by moving something hot into place thats not hot

Hyrdropower

hydroelectric power generation is the largest source of non-fossil fuel derived energy / water wheels and turbines allow water to rush through it and generate power it was discovered that one could spin a wheel (turbine) by allowing water to rush through it and by building a large dam, a large hydraulic head (water pressure) could be developed and water could be shot through turbines connected to electric generators to generate electricity / the taller the dam the more pressure can be developed hydropower is the most efficient means of electricity production in that the amount of energy required to build a dam and maintain the turbines is small compared to the amount of energy that can be generated - good energy payback ratio dams do alter the entire ecosystem upstream from a river or stream along with its riparian zone, floodplain and ecological communities bc creates a lake behind the dam (a lot of evaporation) / also stop and trap all of the sediment - leads to erosion downstream biogeochemical impact of dam = dissolved nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus are carried by a river as well as small amounts of silica / this silica would normally reach the ocean and would help some organisms bloom and make their shells --> without the silica, more nutrients enter the water without the silica and this leads to large algae blooms "red tides"

tropics vs poles air circulation

in general the sun shines most strongly in the tropics, as this is where it is most directly overhead, with the most energy impacting the surface per area / as tropical air is heated, it expands (PV =nRT) and rises buoyantly at higher latitudes, the angle of impact is tilted so less energy is available per area meanwhile, at the poles, cold dense air seeks to sink / this leads to a dipole forcing to make a loop with tropical air rising and moving out toward the poles and polar air sinking and moving along the ground back to the tropics but if the earth was not turning and sunlight was always shining on the equator, this would is exactly what would happen however the earth IS turning (one rotation per day), so as tropical air tries to move poleward, it finds that the earth is moving more slowly under it and as polar air moves equatorward, it finds the earth moving faster and faster relative to the air

structural trap (oil)

in order for a caprock to effectively concentrate oil or gas, it needs to be deformed so that is has a structure that catches rising fluids that are lighter than water (oil and gas) structural trap - an umbrella shaped dome / deformed caprock that captures rising oil and gas and bc the caprock is impermeable it creates a concentrated reservoir into which a well can be drilled and oil and gas can be extracted a structural trap can be caused by a fold in sedimentary rocks or by a fault in titled (dripping) strata that places an impermeable rock in the way of rising oil or gas shale cap rock --> pocket of oil and gas --> sandstone reservoir rock --> shale-source rock

burning oil

in order to burn oil removed from reservoirs, it must be refined and turned into something like gasoline or diesel fuel (this is done in large refineries) in a refinery, the crude oil is chemically altered (cracked) so that the specific forms that can be burned in predictable ways

chemical energy

involves interactions b/t atoms / when coal and wood is burned / energy is released when atoms are recombined into electrically more strongly bound molecules "radiant energy" = energy carried by electromagnetic waves such as visible light, x-rays, and radio waves --> these waves can be by electrons in atoms and move electrons into higher energy levels this is how the ozone layer of the atmosphere shields the Earth's surface from harmful UV rays coming from the sun

Biological Fractionation

isotopic fractionation by organisms during growth / photosynthetic pathways (both c3 and c4 strongly prefer the light isotope of carbon / photosynthetic phytoplankton thus deplete the surface ocean in c-12 "enriching" the water in c-13, so that when planktonic heterotrophic organisms make their shells from the remaining inorganic C, they are enriched (isotopically heavy) in c-13 relative to the deeper ocean depends on temp of the water and this is reflected in the composition of marine shells but by measuring the isotopic composition of the shells preserved in deep sea cores and rocks, scientists can thus calculate the temp of the water at the time the organism was living

Holocene Epoch to present

last 12,000 years or so and has been a time of remarkable climate stability / minor climate variations recorded in last thousand years, a medieval warm period occurred in the 12th and 13th centuries AD, during which the average global temperature was almost a degree warmer than the previous centuries or since, until 20th century in the 15th and 18th centuries, the Little Ice Age brought temps down to about half a degree below the long-term Holocene averages and Londoners were able to skate on the Thames in middle of 19th century, temps began to rise and continue to rise at present / rate of climate warming in the present day is greater than that in the Paleo record and this may be because the temporal resolution of the proxies used to reconstruct past temps are insufficient to record such rapid changes and may be because global warming in the post industrial era, during which great quantities of anthropogenic greenhouse gases have been released into the atmosphere

indoor air pollution

major health concern cause ppl constantly inside / some indoor pollution is from natural substances and organisms (pollen, dust, bacteria, radon) while other is man-made products (asbestos, metals, ozone, pesticides, particulates, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds degassing from painted or carpeted surfaces)

Air pollution

many solid, liquid, and gas pollutants are emitted into the atmosphere that have potentially dangerous effects on health pollutants can come from natural or anthropogenic sources / natural sources are usually dispersed like pollen / sea salt / forest fires / dust storms anthropogenic sources are often concentrated in urban areas and even indoors where ppl spend great deal of their time air pollutants = nitrogen, oxides, sulfur oxides, ozone (created at ground level in troposphere from reactions bt nitrogen oxides and oxygen), hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide (incomplete fossil fuel burning), and particulates (tiny solids emitted from fossil fuel burning, mining, agriculture and other land disturbances) these all come from cars, power plants, burning of fossil fuels (nitrogen and sulfur oxides in urban areas) / solid particulates can block incoming sun and cool lower atmosphere and earth's surface extreme case of air pollution - in Donora, PA (1948) / an atmospheric inversion prevented smokestack emissions from a zinc smelter from rising up away from ground level and pollution accumulated on the ground and lead to immediate death of 20 ppl Bhopal, India (1984) - Union carbide chemical plant released a cloud of methyl isocyanate - deadly poison gas / 20,000 ppl died from exposure

health concerns of nuclear radiation

nuclear radiation is a health concern because alpha, beta and gamma particles strip away electrons from atoms in an organism (such as your body) and lead to cell and DNA damage ultimate health effects = cancer and leukemia and in extreme cases loss of hair and bone marrow, hemorrhaging organisms like animals ingest radionuclides (radioactive atoms) that produce radiation ---> leading to ionization and cell damage these radionuclides in animals then make it's way up the food chain when animals are eaten by predators / the higher up the trophic level in the food chain = more bioaccumulation of radionuclides / mercury

isotopic fractionation

occurs b/c different isotopes of the same element have a different mass / the preferential inclusion of a light or heavy isotope of an element during phase change of a substance / the heavier isotope "prefer" liquid over gas and solid over liquid / therefore when water evaporates, heavy isotopes of O and H are preferentially left behind in the ocean and when the water rains back out of the atmosphere, any heavy isotopes that has evaporated are the first to precipitate, leaving rain and snow at high latitudes and altitudes isotopically very light bc heavy isotopes rain out first and most evaporation occurs in the tropics by the time a moist airmass reaches high latitude, it has already rained out heavy isotopes and the resulting snow and ice is light - leaving the remaining ocean heavy, so marine organisms during glacial times have isotopically heavier water to work with temperature also affects how organisms incorporate the different isotopes into their bodies, depending on how they do it phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, use photosynthesis which strongly fractionates carbon in favor of the light isotope in a way that is sensitive to temperature / in cold water when there is plenty of dissolved CO2, phytoplankton can be pickier about preferring the light C isotope and there is greater fractionation, leaving more heavy c-13 in the water when zooplankton and larger organisms make their shells from dissolved carbonate, they do not fractionate much, so reflect the composition of seawater

Oil (how its formed / mined)

oil (aka petroleum) is the altered remains of marine micro-organisms (plankton) that died, settled to the ocean floor and were buried by later sediments before they has a chance to decompose (oxidize) over millions of years the thick piles of sediments over them buried them so deeply they were subjected to high pressures and temps / driving off the oxygen matter so that a goo was left behind, consisting mostly of hydrogen and carbon "hydrocarbon" in order for oil to be useful, it must be accessible for drilling from oil wells, so it has to move or migrate from the areas where it formed / contained organic matter that matured into hydrocarbons called (source rock) to become concentrated in and migrate into a much smaller space, overlying the source rock called a (reservoir rock) - permeable like a good aquifer bc oil is less dense on average than water, the ground is saturated with water, the oil slowly rises up the slopes of deformed sedimentary layers to get caught in stratigraphic or structural traps confined by a (caprock) - an impermeable formation over reservoir rock that prevents hydrocarbons from migrating up more / leading to high concentration of hydrocarbon in reservoir rock - oil companies then drill from these to pump out oil most oil is in the middle eat / but is distributed unevenly around the world bc the processes that form oil are very specific and lots of conditions must be satisfied for a useful oil resource to be exploited - especially the proximity of a source rock to a reservoir rock / need good stratigraphic or structural trap Present pumping rate of 27 billion barrels/yr (gives 37 yrs, or 111 yrs) We use up oil at 3-4 times the rate we find more / "Business as usual" will deplete all oil by about 2100. Oil Shale: Shale that contains oil (kerogen) in tiny pore spaces - Heating extracts oil from the rock - Expensive process Tar Sands: Sand with oil (or tar, or bitumen) in pore spaces cannot pump because oil is too viscous (thick) - Most tar sands in Canada

sustainable energy sources

oil, gas and coal did come from the sun --> this energy came from the sun millions of years ago, having been converted to biomass by photosynthesis and become concentrated chemically to hydrocarbons that could be re-oxidized (burned) with the release of energy but these fossil fuels are not renewable bc it takes millions of years to accumulate the stored chemical (electrical) energy so need new sustainable sources to get energy from before we deplete everything and global warming becomes irreversible

stratigraphic trap

place where the rock type changes / thus causing migrating oil and gas to be funneled into a more highly concentrated location / concentration of hydrocarbons in a specific part of the reservoir rock due to non-horizontal original deposition of the reservoir and caprocks can be caused by an pinchout of lithology or an unconformity in which dripping strata are cut by erosion and then covered by flat lying strata or could be a reef covered

proxies

records of past environmental conditions preserved in sediments, rocks, trees, ice and any other remnants from the time of interest / the records may be chemical, biological, isotopic or physical and could be preserved in any number of ways / scientists use these records to infer past conditions because they understand that the processes that create records depend on the past environmental conditions that created them a key observational record comes from ice cores that represent hundreds of thousands of years of ice accumulation - scientists can analyze those air bubbles and determine past atmospheric composition - this is how we know that CO2 and methane changed overtime

2 types of energy

renewable and nonrenewable

Solar Energy

solar energy is the ultimate source of almost all the world's energy / fossil fuels come from ancient plants (marine or terrestrial) that grew from sunlight wind is generated from differential heating of the planet by the sun / rivers used for hydropower are part of the hydrologic cycle that is driven by evaporation and precipitation / biomass to be burned is all grown with sunlight / only sources NOT from sun = nuclear (fisson +fusion), geothermal and tidal

nuclear energy expanded

strongest energy and comes from binding energy that holds together protons and neutrons in an atomic nucleus / it doesn't involve oxidation (burning) or carbon-based fuels so it doesn't emit CO2 into atmosphere energy depends on how large a nucleus is / with greatest energy per nucleon in iron and nickel curve of nuclear binding energy - nuclear force holds protons and neutrons together in a nucleus, the strength of the inter-nucleon bond depends on size of nucleus / strongest bonds are in iron nucleus, gradually tapering to larger nuclei but steeping dropping off in smaller nuclei / this is why fusion can release more energy per nucleon than fission nuclear reactions cause nuclei to split apart (fission) and join together (fusion) and alter their internal structure and emit small particles (radioactive decay) each of these causes a nucleus to move along the binding energy curve to another position closer to iron (most strongly bound nucleus), releasing energy accordingly this curve is much steeper to the left of iron than to the right where the heavy elements are located / this means that more energy can be obtained per nucleon from moving light elements up toward iron than down from heavy elements

energy

the ability to do work / w = force x distance / force = mass x acceleration cannot be created or destroyed but can be converted from one form to another 2 types - kinetic and potential

Energy budget

the amount of incoming energy is always balanced by the amount of outgoing energy / if more outgoing energy is trapped by the greenhouse gases, the atmospheric temp must rise in order to emit enough energy to balance incoming radiation

Trophosphere

the bottom layer of the atmosphere (up to about 12 km), where we live, that contains most of the atmospheric air and also moisture / it's also where weather occurs the bottom of the troposphere (the earth's solid and liquid surface) is the warmest part, averaging 15 degrees c and cools with altitude to about -60 degrees c at the top of the troposphere which is an interface called the tropopause

electromagnetic spectrum

the complete range of electromagnetic waves placed in order of increasing frequency / these waves travel at the speed of light (through a vacuum) and carry energy according to their frequency / the higher the frequency (shorter the wavelength), the more energy / visible light is merely a very narrow range of frequencies and is at the peak of the solar spectrum, meaning that the sun radiates most intensely at these frequencies at the lowest frequencies (longest wavelengths) are radio waves (infrasound, perceptible sounds and ultrasounds) (AM, FM, TV) and carry the least amount of energy / the next higher range on the spectrum is microwaves (kitchen) and are turned to the frequency that most effectively excites harmonic frequencies of the liquid water molecule / next comes infrared, with wavelengths of about 1 to 100 microns . this is what the earth radiates to space / beyond that is a very narrow range of visible light with wavelengths of .4 to .7 microns / these wavelengths are at the peak of the solar spectrum / at a higher-frequency is ultraviolet (UVA, UVB, UVC) / and then come x-rays with wavelengths of .01 to .00001 microns and then finally, the shortest wavelength and highest frequency and energy is gamma radiation - commonly given off in nuclear reactions and radioactive decay / all matter emits electromagnetic radiation and the hotter the body of matter, the higher the frequency and energy of the emitted radiation Why is the grass green? Because chlorophyll absorbs blue and red, reflects green. Chlorophyll-a most important

weather

the day to day atmospheric conditions, including hourly temperature, precipitation, cloudiness, relative humidity, fog and other things we encounter daily on earth surface

Earth's Radiation Balance

the earth maintains a constant balance between radiant energy coming in from the sun (mostly as visible light) and going out from the earth (as infrared)

Nuclear radiation

the emission of alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays from the nucleus of an atom the emission from a nucleus of helium nuclei (Alpha), electrons (Beta) or high-energy photons (Gamma Rays) / when a nucleus is large with an overabundance of protons in the proton / neutron ratio, it can reach a more stable state by turning a proton into a neutron and emitting an electron and an antineutrino if there are too many neutrons in a nucleus, a neutron can turn into a proton by emitting a positron and a neutrino - this process is controlled by the weak force when a nucleus is large enough it can spontaneously emit a helium nucleus (alpha decay), consisting of two protons and two neutrons, bringing it down the binding energy curve a bit toward iron third kind of radioactive decay = gamma decay, emits a very-high energy photon or gamma ray created by nucleons in the nucleus moving from higher-energy to lower-energy state and this can occur with or without an accompanying alpha or beta decay bc energy states are exceedingly strong, the steps between them are large and the energy of the photon is great

Fusion

the joining together of small atomic nuclei (hydrogen) by forcing them together to overcome the electronic repulsion of the positively charged protons and allow the nuclear force to bind them together / fusion occurs with the sun and stars due to the gravitational pressure that presses hydrogen atoms together at a high temperature to fuse and make helium our fossil fuels and most renewable energy sources were ultimately derived from fusion within the sun we can recreate a local environment that leads to fusion by heating deuterium and tritium (isotopes of hydrogen) to tens of millions of degrees by magnetically containing an ionized gas (it is a plasma (a state of matter that consists solely of nuclei) at that temp, stripped of its electrons) / it gives them all strongly positive charge that must be overcome by kinetic energy if they are to collide to produce nuclear fusion this is difficult - so we are still without a practical way to accomplish self-sustaining fusion from which more energy can be extracted than is expended to create the environment to produce the fusion reaction but fusion could satisfy our rates of energy consumption for thousands of years bc isotopes of hydrogen needed for fusion are abundant in ocean Technical problems are: High Temperatures (100 million degrees C)/ Keeping component plasma nucleons close for long enough (nt)

climate

the long-term average conditions that occur in a region / climate controls the nature of vegetation, soils, morphology of the land surface, interaction between the land surface, groundwater, surface water and the atmosphere climate in a given area is controlled mostly by latitude (hot, humid, rainy at equator, dry with large diurnal temp variations at 30degree north and south latitudes, and cool, cloudy and rainy at 60 degree north and south, and cold and dry at poles) also controlled by elevation - high mountains are cooler than low altitudes prevailing winds can also determine a region's climate / hillslopes facing the wind are generally rainer than those facing away from prevailing winds (this is because warm, moist air cools as it rises up a slope, thus losing capacity to hold moisture, while heading down the other side, cool dry air gets warms and direr thus creating the orographic effect (Hawaii mountains with rain forest on one side and desert on other) proximity to ocean or large lake also affects climate -> water due to its great heat capacity, takes much longer to warm up (in summer) or cool off (in winter) than the land surface, so if the ocean is upwind, seasonal temps are moderated / in US = very hot summers and very cold winters also earth's radiation balance, carbon and other biogeochemical cycles, hydrologic cycle and all feedbacks and interactions between Earth's subsystems and human impact ALL affect climate

stratosphere

the next layer of atmosphere above troposphere, extending from 15km to about 50km above the ground / an important layer in the stratosphere is the ozone layer that absorbs UVB where the concentration of ozone is elevated due to photochemical reactions with sunlight that create ozone by dissociation of oxygen molecules by UVC (ultraviolet light) all of life on earth, after the onset of an oxygen-rich atmosphere, evolved in the absence of UVB and UVC has no defense against cellular damage caused by these which is why ppl need to wear sunscreen and protect ozone layer

Eccentricity

the non-roundness of an ellipse (or in this case elliptical orbit), as measured in terms of the ratio of major and minor semiaxes - a circle has eccentricity 0, and a very elongated ellipse has eccentricity approaching 1 / Earth's orbital eccentricity waxes and wanes between .0004 (almost circular) and .06 with a period of about 100,000 years

Fission

the splitting apart of a large atomic nucleus (uranium) triggered by bombardment by neutrons either from an external source or by the fission reactions in the nuclear fuel we take advantage of this in nuclear power plants - we rely on fission of large nuclei like uranium to release energy / this energy is used to heat water to steam and drive a steam turbine fission is accomplished by hitting a large nucleus with a neutron to cause it to become unstable and split into two or more fragments / these fragments (daughters), move away from the original site of the parent nucleus (the large nucleus that divides into daughters), leading to intense heating of the material in the nuclear reactor water is piped through the reactor, heating to steam to drive turbines that drive electric reactors according to 2nd law of thermodynamics - using highly concentrated nuclear energy to make the least organized form of energy, heat, is inefficient, leading to rapid increase in entropy the daughters of fission reactions in nuclear power plants are themselves radioactive with a wide spectrum of half-lives, from seconds to millions of years - consequently they must be removed and stored for millennia so that the radioactivity doesn't enter the environment (major concern)

Radiation from the sun and earth

the surface of the sun is almost 6000 degrees c, so it radiates visible light (as well as infrared and ultraviolet) / the earth is much cooler (only 15 degree c) so radiates in the infrared and keeps a balance between the energy entering the atmosphere from the sun (mostly visible) and leaving the earth (infrared) the earth's atmosphere complicates the radiative balance of the planet the atmosphere is fairly transparent to visible (which is why we can see a long way through it), but it is not so transparent to the infrared - so visible light from the sun penetrates the atmosphere partially and heats the Earth's surface (some is reflected back by the cloud (30%) / another 25% is absorbed by atmosphere heating it and then finally 45% reaches the ground, however in response to the surface warming, the Earth radiates infrared back out into atmosphere but the reradiated infrared does not easily penetrate the relatively transparent atmosphere (being absorbed by some greenhouse gases and gets trapped in the atmosphere = greenhouse effect the earth is not a black body

Tilts of Earth's axis

the tilt of the Earth's axis as it revolves around the sun makes the seasons / in the northern hemisphere summer, the North Pole points towards the sun (and has 24 hour day light), while in the winter, it points away (24 hour dark) / at mid-latitudes, the days are longer in summer and thus warmer with more time for solar heating and less time for radiative cooling at night a slight complication on top of all this is that the earth's rotation is tilted at 23.5 degrees relative to its orbit around the sun, so the sun shines directly down on the equator twice a year during equinoxes, while the point of direct overhead sunlight moves north and south between the tropics of cancer and Capricorn (at 23.5 degree north and south) / this causes the climate zones driven by the atmospheric circulation system to move north and south and provides us with the seasons

passive solar energy

the use of the sun in building design that optimizes the heating from the sun in winter while preventing / avoiding excess heat in the summer with windows that face the south, sunlight can enter the windows and heat interior spaces in the winter / allows for the greenhouse effect to trap heat in the building, as glass is transparent to visible to light but is partially opaque to the infrared radiation re-emitted from the building special window glass designed for low emissivity (low-E) further enhances the greenhouse effect by being more opaque to infrared / this combined with double or even triple-pane glass with special non-conducting gases between the panes (argon or krypton) greatly reduces heat loss by infrared radiation out of the windows but inhibiting daytime heating deciduous trees can add to this effect when planted to the south because they can add shade in the summer but not in the winter when you want solar heating

Tidal Energy

the world ocean represents an immense reservoir of energy, its heat controls global climates and its movements involve great amounts of energy most energy is associated with megatidal tides in areas like Canada, France and England, tides near 15m lead to currents into and out of coastal tributaries that can be used to generate electricity there are two ways this can be accomplished / this first (only conceptual) is to place turbines in the currents to generate electricity directly from the current the second is to build dams that block the incoming (or outgoing) tide until the water level difference on each side of the dam is greatest and then open the gates to drive the water through turbines greatest disadvantage = power is only generated for only a short time each day / damming coastal tributaries interferes with sensitive ecosystems / and there aren't that many places on earth with sufficient tidal range

Basic law of thermodynamics

there are a few fundamental rules that govern the conversion of energy from one form to another numbered 0 to 3 bc most fundamental law was defined laster and added to front 0th law: if two things are in thermal equilibrium with a third, they are in thermal equilibrium with each other (all same temp) 1st law: Energy can be transferred from one form to another, but the total is conserved (cannot be created or destroyed) / allows for conversion of energy from one form to another 2nd: Energy flows only from hotter to colder bodies or from those with more energy to those with less (energy can only become more disordered, and diffused, thus increase entropy: you lose on any energy exchange, thus making some unusable heat) 3rd law: as temperature approaches absolute zero, entropy approaches a constant, so absolute zero is unattainable (you can't take away energy from something that has less energy than that with which is interacts, so you can't cheat on the 2nd law....sort of enforcing the "Robin Hood of energy" aspect of 2nd law

Phanerozoic Period

throughout Phanerozoic time (last 550 million yrs) the earth has oscillated between icehouse and greenhouse conditions about 5 times and with the more recent greenhouse being the Cretaceous period / until about 65 million years ago - since that time the earth gradually cooled, culminating in the major glaciations of the Pleistocene Epoch in last couple million years glaciation waxed and waned throughout the Pleistocene and the most recent major ice sheets that covered the northern north America and Eurasia 18,000 yrs ago essentially melted away by 10,000 years ago - remnants today remain in Greenland and Antartica

Wind energy

wind is created by differential heating of the planet by the sun, so is essentially another form of solar energy modern windmills are aerodynamically more efficient than ancient windmills with wooden frames / cloth blades / but connected directly to electrical generators - they generate hundreds of kilowatts to a few megawatts and when grouped together can produce many megawatts as long as the wind blows more than 5m/s (11mph) / often times such wind farms are built on grazing land and other agricultural areas that are unaffected by the forest of wind turbines environmental impacts: ugly / "Not In My Back Yard" / thousands of birds die each year from flying into blades but not too big of a problem - housecats and buildings kill more birds also sometimes wind doesn't blow at steady rate - so wind power is not always effective