UW ATMS 211
A parcel of air that moves from 30S to the equator, while conserving angular momentum will have its eastward wind speed (westerly component of wind)...
Accelerated toward the West (weaker westerlies or easterly acceleration)
The role of clouds in changing global temperatures is complex because different cloud types (i.e. high/thin vs. low/thick) have different relative strengths of ____ and ____
Albedo effect, greenhouse effect
A "Drumlin" is
An elongated hill where a glacier flowed over a hard spot
A storm surge is
An onshore rush of water associated with a land-falling storm and wind stress on the surface of the ocean
In the Arctic Ocean, cold water floats on top of warmer water...
Because the deeper water is saltier.
Snowball Earth occurred at a time when the continents were
Bunched near the Equator
High Carbon-13 in an ocean sediment means
Carbon burial by non-biological processes (sediment formed without much help from biology)
Distinguish "a change in weather" from "a change in climate".
Changes in weather occur over hours or days, while climate is the change in average weather over longer timescales.
The Hadley Cell Thermodynamic Engine...
Condenses water to release latent heat to drive upward motion near the equator.
Why is it that if a cold temperature record is broken in Seattle, this is not evidence of global cooling?
Confuses weather with climate and often natural variability means that there's an anomalously warm place elsewhere.
An increase in soot concentration over fresh snow will ____ the overall albedo of the area; an increase in clouds over a forest will ____ the overall albedo of the area.
Decrease, increase
During the last 250 million years, which of the following is a way in which plate tectonics have influenced the Earth's climate?
Decreased plate movements led to less volcanic activities, and therefore less CO2 released into the atmosphere. The development of large mountain ranges such as the Himalayas led to decreases in atmospheric CO2 from increased chemical weathering. The development of the Antarctic ice sheet at the South Pole increased the Earth's albedo.
The mixed layer in middle latitudes is
Deeper in winter
During La Nina, we expect,
Drought in California and less rain in the Gulf States
All of the following processes may change the climate over timescales of several thousand years or longer EXCEPT:
El Nino/La Nina events
T/F: CO2 is only 3% of the atmosphere
False
T/F: the atmosphere transport peaks near the subtropical jet at 30N and 30S
False
True or False: Most hurricanes and typhoons emerge within the region between 5 degrees south and 5 degrees north.
False, because the effect of Earth's rotation is too small in that region
What is the difference between climate forcing and climate feedback?
Forcing changes global temperatures directly while feedbacks respond to temperature changes.
Explain what Global Warming Potential is. Include two physical things that it takes into account (1 & 2), a key parameter that defines it (3), and the reference to which it is normalized (4). Finally, given all this, why is it useful? (5)
Global Warming Potential is how much of a greenhouse effect a particular gas has. GWP takes into account (1) the gas's lifetime (i.e. how long the gas stays in the atmosphere) and (2) a mass weighted efficiency per kg in reducing energy loss to space. GWP is defined by the key parameter of (3) a specified time horizon typically of 100 years, but could also be 20 or 200. GWP is normalized to (4) carbon dioxide, which is to say that carbon dioxide's GWP equals 1. GWP is useful (5) because it helps inform regulation policy to prioritize particular gases with high impacts.
List H20, nitrogen, CO2, and methane in order from having most to least contribution to the natural greenhouse effect
H20, CO2, methane, nitrogen
High Oxygen-18 in an ocean core means
High land ice volume
The aerosol indirect effect is
Humans emit aerosols and that brightens the clouds
Volcanic eruptions like Pinatubo in 1991 cause a change of the climate in the following way:
Increased flow of SO2 from the volcanic eruption cools the climate
Which of the following accurately describes the climate change impact on projected streamflow in the PNW?
Increased winter rainfall and decreased summer snowpack melt will increase streamflow in the winter and decrease streamflow in the summer.
Evidence that Earth has gone through ice-covered states followed by super greenhouse hot periods is given by
Iron ocean sediments below high-C13 carbonate layers
Water vapor is a very efficient absorber and emitter of thermal infrared radiation emitted by the Earth because
It is a bent triatomic molecule and CO2 is not bent
Hurricanes don't like vertical shear because
It twists the vertical structure of the hurricane and impedes the efficient utilization of latent energy.
If the thermohaline circulation is believed to slow down over the next century, what will be a possible consequence with respect to the climate warming in Europe?
It will warm less.
Which of the following is true about global temperature trends from 1976 to 2000?
Land areas have warmed more than oceans, the northern high latitudes have warmed more than other parts of the Earth, and most of the world has warmed during this time period.
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation
Looks kind of like El Nino in the PNW, but takes decades instead of 2-6 years to go through a cycle Affects temperatures and snow pack in the PNW Affects salmon runs in Alaska and the PNW conversely Currently dominates over global warming in determining global temperature anomaly changes from one year to the next.
Multi-model mean is
More informative than an individual model.
Ice albedo feedback is greater in the Northern Hemisphere than Southern Hemisphere because
NH has more land, more snow, and a polar ocean.
Which of the following correctly describes annual net radiation at the top of the atmosphere for the Sahara-Arabian deserts?
Net radiation is negative because the high albedo causes low absorbed solar radiation and the hot surface with no clouds causes large outgoing longwave emissions.
Ice ages are most likely when
Orbital Tilt is small
Spatial resolution limitations in climate models leads to
Parameterization of small-scale processes such as clouds.
The Hadley Cell transports
Potential energy poleward and moisture equatorward
The Hadley Circulation transports
Potential energy toward the pole and sensible latent head toward the equator.
The Younger Dryas is an example of a
Rapid climate change
Changes in atmospheric CO2 are thought to have played an important role in all the following climatic changes EXCEPT
Relative flattening of the global surface temperature over the past 10 years.
Which of the following is most true?
Scientists predicted change based on the laws of nature and known human activities and can predict the future now with those same laws.
Intense tropical storms require (currently)...
Sea surface temperature greater than 26 degrees Celsius, a deep layer of warm water, and low vertical wind shear
Attribution of climate change is
Showing that the climate change requires a particular forcing.
What is the forcing of the Ice Age cycles during the past 800,000 years?
Solar radiation changes due to changes in Earth's orbig.
What is responsible for most of the energy transport in the mid-latitudes?
Storms
The hurricane season is
Summer and Fall
How will the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) respond to climate change?
The AMOC will decrease in speed.
We know for certain that the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere since 1750 is mostly from fossil fuel burning because
The C13 isotope in air has decreased
Which of the following statements regarding the Earth's climate over the past billion years is true?
The Earth has existed in a snowball state for part of the time. The Earth has been much hotter than today for many millions of years. The current glaciation of the Antarctic continent began less than 50 million years ago. Changes in orbital eccentricity, obliquity, and precession are responsible for the recent series of Ice Ages.
If you want to sail into an intense tropical storm, the best place to look is...
The Western Pacific about 15N
The greenhouse effect of the atmosphere makes the surface warmer because
The air temperature decreases with altitude
Which of the following is a true statement about climate sensitivity?
The amount of change to the Earth's temperature from a given forcing depends on climate sensitivity. Positive feedbacks make climate sensitivity bigger and negative feedbacks make climate sensitivity smaller. Increases in aerosol forcing could make sensitivity smaller.
The annual variation of surface temperature over the oceans is smaller than over the land because
The capacity of the land to store heat is less than the ocean
Albedo is
The fraction of radiation that is reflected
Winter occurs when
The hemisphere you are in is tilted away from the sun
According to the consensus of climate scientists, the most likely cause of the relative lack of warming from 1940 to 1970 is
The increased aerosol forcing by humans after WWII
What's the difference between the solar variability theory for cllimate change and the orbital parameter theory for climate change?
The solar variability theory hypothesizes that the energy output of the sun varies and the orbital parameter theory hypothesizes that the variations in Earth-Sun geometry cause change.
During the Asian winter monsoon...
The winds blow from land to sea
The beginning of Ice Ages happen when
There is less summer insolation
The single largest part of the sea level rise that has occurred so far is
Thermal expansion of the sea
How do volcanic eruptions effect the climate?
They cool the climate by injecting large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, reflecting incoming solar radiation back out to space.
We have more trust in climate models because
They use mathematical expressions for the laws of physics. They are derived from weather prediction models, which have been shown to be able to predict the weather up to a week or so in advance. They have been tested against data. Some of their predictions have come true.
T/F: Changes in the concentration of greenhouse gases are an example of longwave forcing.
True
T/F: Climate models are the best tools we have for figuring out what the effects of greenhouse gas increases on climate and humanity are likely to be
True
T/F: Ice-albedo feedback is a positive feedback because the lower albedo of the exposed surface leads to more warming.
True
T/F: Pound for pound methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide
True
T/F: Saturation vapor pressure increases with temperature and contributes to the water vapor feedback.
True
T/F: The surface of the Earth receives twice as much radiation from emission from the atmosphere as it does from emission from the sun.
True
T/F: Weather prediction models become useless after two weeks or so, but climate models can provide useful information about the climate 100 years from now or 100,000 years ago.
True
True or False: There is very little evidence that the number of tropical storms has changed during the period when we have observations.
True
True or False: The melting of Greenland ice sheet and Arctic sea ice tends to slow down the Thermohaline circulation.
True, because the water becomes less salty thus less dense.
The primary reasons why Nitrous Oxide is increasing in the atmosphere is because of
Use of artificial fertilizers
High deuterium (H2) in an ice core means
Warm temperatures when the snow fell
Which atmospheric gases are absorbers of infrared radiation?
Water vapor (H2O) and Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Gasoline is to racing cars as...
Water vapor is to typhoons
What is a difference in the radiation emitted by the earth and the sun?
Wavelength
How important are initial conditions for weather and climate models?
Weather models rely more heavily on initial conditions than climate models.
The Earth was able to escape the ice covered condition of Snowball Earth because
Weathering was suppressed during the ice-covered condition
Prevailing winds in the mid-latitudes are
Westerlies
Which of the following are reasons why deforestation increases the amount of carbon in the atmosphere?
When they are burned to clear land, the trees, soils, and undergrowth release CO2. and Trees that would have been pulling carbon dioxide out of the air are not there anymore.
When the isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in water in ice sheets are heavier than average, we know that
air above the ice sheet was warmer than normal when that ice was laid down
We know that the atmospheric CO2 went up and down inversely with the ice ages of the past 800,000 years because
bubbles trapped in ice cores have more CO2 during warm periods
If the concentration of atmospheric CO2 were doubled, the earth would warm because
less longwave radiation would be lost to outer space
An increase in temperature will result in ____ ice, ____ the Earth's albedo, resulting in a/an ____ of the Earth's temperature. This is an example of a ____ feedback.
less, decreasing, increase, positive
Compared to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean is
more saline and more oxygenated
Off the coast of equatorial South America we expect during La Nina that...
more upwell, more anchovies
Water vapor feedback...
occurs because the lapse rate is positive and because saturation vapor pressure increases rapidly with temperature.
Weathering...
proceeds faster at high temperatures, thus creating a negative feedback
The primary forcing of the glacial variations during the past 800,000 years has been
variations in Earth's tilt and orbit around the sun
Northern hemisphere trade winds are predominantly
winds that travel from northeast to southwest
From 1940 to 2015, the global mean surface temperature increased about
0.9 C
Explain how Earth recovers from an ice ball state. Start with describing what process is suppressed (1) in an ice ball state, then state the natural phenomena which initiates the recovery (2), and how the climate responds (3) as a result. Once Earth recovers from an ice ball state, explain the efficiency of the initially suppressed process (4) and how the climate responds (5).
1 ) The frozen surface suppresses removal of CO2 by weathering 2 ) Volcanoes continue to slowly add CO2 to the atmosphere. 3 ) Eventually enough CO2 builds up that its greenhouse effect melts the ice and leads to a climate with higher greenhouse gases and no surface ice. 4 ) At this point weathering becomes very efficient and drives the CO2 back down toward a lower value. 5) decreased CO2 = decreased greenhouse effect = cooler climate
The 11-year solar cycle produces a variation in total solar irradiance of ____, which translates into a climate forcing of ____.
1.5 Wm-2 and 0.2 Wm-2
The measurements from surface thermometers have been sufficient to define the time series of global mean temperature anomalies since about
1880
A rough estimate of how long anthropogenic CO2 stays in the atmosphere after it is emitted is
200 years
Since Preindustrial times (1750) until today atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased from
280ppm to 400ppm
For a sphere, like the Earth is almost, the ratio of the emission area to the solar absorption area is
4 to 1
Given realistic emissions scenarios, the IPCC climate models predict that global mean temperatures will change by how much from 2000 to 2100?
4 to 8 degrees F
If the temperature increases by 1 C, the saturation vapor pressure increases by about
7%
Between 1880 and the present the sea level has risen about ____ inches and by 2100 we expect, if we continue releasing greenhouse gases, that it will increase by
9 inches and 31 inches