Homework Questions #1: Answers
1. What are the two most crucial constituents of the atmosphere in regard to
weather and climate?
Water vapor and Carbon dioxide
2. How are human beings disrupting the delicate balance of the carbon dioxide
cycle?
By rapidly emitting CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels that took millions of
years to store
3. What is the critical function of ozone in regard to maintaining life on earth?
Ozone absorbs damaging incoming ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun
4. Weather is _______the condition of the atmosphere at any point in time__________.
5. Climate is ______________weather “averaged” over time ___________________
or, essentially, _____the characteristic (typical) weather of a given region _______.
6. What about a particular places’ location is the most important factor in
determining its climate?
Latitude
7. a) What is the band of rain showers and thunderstorms in the region of maximal
solar heating near the equator called?
Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
b) Is the air rising or sinking in this region?
Rising
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8. a) What type of semi-permanent subtropical weather systems, are located to the
north and south of this band?
Subtropical High Pressure Systems
b) Is the air rising or sinking in these areas?
Sinking
9. Why do ocean temperatures change less quickly than continental temperatures?
1. Water has a greater “heat capacity” (can absorb more heat without a rise in
temperature due to its ability to mix heat down to greater depths)
2. Water has a greater “specific heat” (innate quality of the substance - it requires
more energy to raise the temperature of water compared with solid ground)
10. What effect does orography (terrain) have on climate?
1. Large amounts of annual precipitation fall on mountain range upslope surfaces
(upwind) due to upward motion of air
2. Rain shadows with very little annual precipitation occur downwind of mountain
ranges due to downward motion of air
11. a) As the temperature of a substance rises, does the amount of radiation it emits
increase or decrease?
Increase
b) Does the wavelength increase or decrease?
Decrease
12. ________Visible_________is the predominant electromagnetic (EM) radiation
wave type emitted by the sun and __________infrared_________ is the
predominant electromagnetic (EM) radiation wave type emitted by the earth?
13. Albedo is a measure of the percentage of EM radiation that is
_____reflected_________by a substance.
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14. What is the substance (covers the ground at high latitudes) that has the highest
albedo?
Snow
15. When a substance absorbs EM radiation, what happens to the temperature of
that substance?
It increases
16. The “greenhouse effect” occurs because greenhouse gases do not absorb
_________visible light (radiation)__________ from the sun but do absorb
_________infrared radiation______________ emitted by the earth.
17. Greenhouse gases, in effect, behave like the ________panes of glass_________in
a greenhouse, permitting sunlight to pass through and ___heat the earth________
but then absorbing that warmth as it tries to____escape back out into space____.
18. What are the two most important greenhouse gases?
Water vapor and carbon dioxide
19. a) Which of these gases is playing a larger role in our ongoing global climate
change (warming)?
Carbon dioxide
b) Why?
Because its concentration in the atmosphere, and thus its greenhouse effect, is
increasing (fossil fuel emissions). Water vapor concentrations have not changed
significantly
20. Name one other greenhouse gas.
Methane (also nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
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21. According to the IPCC, “warming of earth’s climate system is
_______unequivocal_________”
22. What are the main five known “natural” causes of climate change?
1. Continental drift
2. Variations in earth’s orbit (Milankovitch cycles)
3. Solar output variability
4. Volcanic eruptions
5. Natural (internal) variability
23. What are the main reasons that none of these is the likely cause of our recent
global warming?
They all occur on the wrong time scale relative to our recent warming (too long or
too short). Some also would result in cooling, not warming.
24. According to the IPCC, “Most of the observed increase in globally-averaged
temperatures is very likely ( > 90% probability) due to _____the observed
increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations________________”.
25. Global warming is ______less_______ over oceans than continents.
26. Global warming is greater at ___high and middle__ latitudes during __winter__
season predominantly due to the _____snow-ice albedo feedback________
(postitive feedback mechanism).
27. Climate models project that there will be decreased precipitation in what regions
that already have less precipitation than many areas (and problems with
drought as well)?
Subtropical high pressure systems
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28. a) What is a positive feedback mechanism?
When an initial change in a variable causes another change that “feeds back” to
enhance the initial change
b) Give an example of a global warming positive feedback mechanism.
Snow-ice albedo feedback, water vapor greenhouse gas effect, thawing tundra
29. What is more likely to increase the possibility of
abrupt climate change, a postitive or negative feedback mechanism?
Positive feedback
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