METR112 Prof. Jin review for Mid-term 1
9/27/2012
Professor’s notes:
 This list is only an outline of most important things you need to know after
these lectures.

Remember to go over your homework, class videos, and class activities.

Prepare early.

Prof. Jin’s office hour is Tuesday 1:15-2:15 PM, Wednesday 11:00-12:00
AM, DH 613, or menglin.jin@sjsu.edu
Lecture 1 - Introduction and the changes Observed
1. Has the annual, global mean surface temperature increased or decreased since the
late of 19th century? How much is the change?
2. What are the anthropogenic reasons for surface warming?
3. How does sea level change correspond to the surface warming?
4. Explain the connections and differences of the changes between the global
averaged temperature and the regional temperature.
5. What is the Earth hydrological cycle? What are the components in Earth
hydrological cycle?
6. List five greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. What is the greenhouse
effect? What would happen if the atmosphere loses all greenhouse gases?
7. atmosphere structure
8. Discuss the change of greenhouse gases concentration in atmosphere from 1950s
– present.
Lecture 2: Energy Balance
9. How much is the normal surface temperature? (15°C)
10. Is solar radiation uniform? Does the sun emit at longwave or shortwave radiation?
Or both? What is the dominant wavelength for the sun’s emission?
11. What is the definition of energy balance?
12. What are the three ways to transfer heat to/from atmosphere? Give examples.
13. What is the definition of temperature?
14. Describe the relations between temperature and water vapor, temperature and
greenhouse gases
15. What is albedo? If other conditions don’t change, an increase in albedo will lead
to an increase or a decrease on surface temperature?
16. Is this statement correct?
a. Summer sea ice decreases tremendously in the last 20 years
b. No change
17. How did Arctic surface snow coverage change in the past few decades.?
Lecture 3-Earth Hydrological Cycle
18. What are the sub-components of hydrological cycle?
19. Give examples of rainfall changes in global change environment (e.g., Africa and
east Asia).
20. What is the change of arctic sea ice?
21. What is the change of Greenland ice-sheet?
22. Are the following statements correct?
Earth energy cycle and water cycle are closely related to each other.
Earth energy cycle and water cycle do not change linearly.
Lecture 4. Clouds and Climate
23. What are the subcomponents of earth water cycle?
24. Under what conditions can clouds form? Give example of where we can
frequently observe clouds (mountain, beach)
25. What are evaporation, condensation, and precipitation?
26. What are the key effects of clouds to radiation?
27. Imagine you go camping on a cloudy day/night and a clear day/night, which day
is warm, which night is warm? Draw figures to show.
28. Discuss low level clouds and high level clouds effects on surface temperature.
Lecture 5 –Aerosols
29. What is aerosol? How large is it? What are the sources for aerosols?
30. What are the two effects of aerosol on climate? Explain in 3-5 sentences.
31. What are the ways for aerosols to affect climate?
32. How much surface insolation is reduced by aerosols for a normal day in city like
New York? (answer: 20-40Wm-2)
33. Why over land, in general, cloud droplet size is smaller than that over ocean?
Lecture 6 Urban Climate System
34. Why do we need to study urban?
35. What is urban heat island effect (UHI)? Is this a daytime phenomenon or night
time phenomenon? What are the reasons for UHI?
36. What is urban canopy effect (or urban canyon effect)?
37. What can be done to reduce UHI? Name a few possible ways and discuss
advantage and disadvantage of each way.
38. What are the key features for cold roof materials?
39. What is surface albedo change in urban regions – increase or decrease? How is
albedo change related to UHI?
40. What is the change of urban surface emissivity? How is this related to UHI?
41. Name a few sources for urban aerosols.
42. How urban change rainfall and why