Geography
Atmosphere
Global atmosphere and climate
Ocean currents
Ocean currents are movements of surface water. How the world's oceans move has a
huge influence on our climate and it, in turn, is influenced by a number of factors.
You need to be able to describe and explain the patterns and impacts of the earth's
ocean currents.
Like atmospheric circulation, ocean currents help to redistribute energy across the
earth. Because they cover 67% of the earth's surface, the oceans receive 67% of the
sun's energy that reaches earth. The ocean holds on to this heat for longer than the
land does and the ocean currents move this heat around, from the tropics to higher
latitudes. In total, ocean currents transfer about 25% of the global heat budget.
World pattern of ocean currents
The map above shows the pattern of currents across the world. You can see that:
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the currents set up circular loops or gyresgyres: spiral oceanic surface
currents. in both the northern and southern hemispheres
the pattern of current flow is clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern hemisphere
in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the currents make a similar pattern
Ocean currents flowing away from the equator are called warm currents. The water in
these currents is not necessarily warm, but it's warm compared to what you would
expect for that latitude. The Gulf Stream is a good example of a warm current. If a
current flows towards the equator it is a cold current, for example the Canaries
current.
These patterns can be explained by a number of factors:
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The prevailing winds on the surface create friction with the surface water,
setting up the ocean currents.
The huge size of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans allows these patterns to form.
The trade winds drive the pattern between 0 and 30 degrees north and south
and the westerlies create the pattern between 30 and 60 degrees north and
south.
Ocean currents don't flow due north or due south because of the coriolis force
caused by the earth's rotation. This deflects the currents to the right in the
northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.
Uneven heating produces density differences in the oceans.
Cold dense polar water sinks, then spreads towards the equator where it
pushes up the less dense warmer water which moves off towards the polar
areas.
Global warming
The diagram below shows variations in global temperature over the past 100 years.
Note that the y-axis shows the difference in degrees Celsius from the 1900 mean
(average) temperature.
Global mean surface temperature 1900-2000
You may be asked to describe what a line graph like this shows. Broadly, this graph
shows that the overall trend is a rise in global surface temperature from 1900 to 2000.
In more detail it shows:
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there was a drop in mean (average) temperature of 0.1 degree in the first 10
years of the 20th century
the temperature then increased, reaching 0.3 degrees above the 1900 mean by
1940
the average temperature then dropped back to 0.2 degrees above the 1900
figure by 1950 and fluctuated around that figure until 1975
in the past 25 years of the century the temperature rose rapidly to 0.7 degrees
higher than 1900 by the year 2000
Remember that the gradient of this line graph shows how quickly or slowly the
temperature is changing - the steeper the slope, the faster the change.
The temperature varied due to a combination of physical and human factors.
Physical causes
Physical causes of global warming and cooling include:
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variations in solar energy - sunspot activity raises global temperature
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volcanic eruptions - large quantities of volcanic dust in the
atmosphereatmosphere: The Earth's atmosphere is the envelope of gasses that
surround the earth. The gasses are held there by the Earth's gravity. The
important gasses in the atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide.
shield the earth from incoming insolationinsolation: solar radiation received
in the Earth's atmosphere or at its surface., lowering global temperature. For
example, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 caused a dip in global
temperatures in the early 1990s
Milankovitch cycles or variations in the tilt and/or orbit of the earth around the
sun
changing oceanic circulation such as the periodic warming (El Nino) and
cooling (La Nina) of areas of the tropical Pacific Ocean
These physical causes of global temperature change have always existed and have
been responsible for alternate heating and cooling cycles of the earth's temperature.
Human causes
The human causes of global warming have been in the news a lot in recent years - you
can probably think of a few examples. Human factors are the result of growing
population and economic developments.
They include:
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the burning of fossil fuels for transport, industry and power, producing carbon
dioxide
world-wide deforestation, sometimes involving rainforest burning, which also
produces carbon dioxide
car exhausts and nitrogen fertilisers, producing nitrous oxide
CFCs found in fridges, air conditioning and aerosols and as a biproduct of the
production of polystyrene packaging, like pizza and burger boxes
methane, produced from rice fields, landfill sites and from both ends of cattle
These different greenhouse gasesgreenhouse gases: The main greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. They are naturally
occurring in atmosphere, but are believed to have increased through burning more
oil, petrol, and coal, while forests have been removed. - carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous oxide - have caused an enhanced greenhouse effectgreenhouse effect: The
build up of greenhouse gases, such as Carbon Dioxide [CO2], in the atmosphere, is
believed retain more heat in the atmosphere than would usually be the case. Naturally
more of the radiation (heat) from the sun would be reflected back into space., trapping
some outgoing infra-red radiation and keeping the earth warmer than it might
otherwise be.
Collectively, these physical and human causes have produced the pattern seen in the
graph above.
Earth's energy balance
The two main features of the earth's energy balance are that:
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there is a net gain of solar energy in the tropical latitudes and a net loss
towards the poles
tropical latitudes receive more of the sun's energy than polar regions
Input into the global heat budget comes in the form of short-wave solar energy. This
is called insolationinsolation: solar radiation received in the Earth's atmosphere or at
its surface.. Only 51% of this insolation reaches and is absorbed by the earth's surface.
The rest is absorbed by water vapour, dust and clouds, or is reflected by the earth's
surface and scattered by particles in the air (the albedoalbedo: the albedo of an object
is the extent to which it diffusely reflects light from the sun. effect). The atmosphere is
largely heated from below, by long-wave terrestrial radiation from the earth's surface.
Latitude and energy balance
You can see that there is a surplus of energy between 35N and 35S. In this region,
incoming insolation exceeds outgoing radiation. There's an energy deficit between
35N and the north pole, and between 35S and the south pole. Here the outgoing
radiation exceeds incoming insolation.
Insolation rises sharply from 50 joules at the poles to 275 joules at the equator.
Terrestrial radiation varies less, from 120 joules at the poles to 200 joules at the
equator.
Energy is transferred from the low-latitude energy surplus areas to the high-latitude
energy deficit areas by atmospheric circulation. If there was no atmospheric
circulation, the low latitudes would get hotter and hotter and the high latitudes colder
and colder.
The diagram tells us that tropical areas get more insolation than polar regions.
Why?
At tropical latitudes:
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the sun's rays are more concentrated, as the noonday sun is high in the sky
throughout the year
the sun's rays have less atmosphere to pass through, so less energy is lost
through absorption and reflection by the atmosphere
in tropical rainforest areas, dense vegetation absorbs radiation giving a low
relative albedo effect.
At high latitudes:
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the sun's angle is much lower, so the rays of energy are spread out over a
much larger area and are therefore less intense
because of the earth's curvature, our planet's surface slopes further away from
the sun, making heating less intense
in polar regions, snow and ice cover reflect much more of the solar radiation,
giving a high albedo effect