Met 112: Final Exam Study Guide
Prof. Jin, Dec. 1, 2009
The final exam will be of a similar format as the midterm; closed book and notes,
multiple-selection section followed by short-answer questions. You will have 2 hours and
15 minutes for the exam.
To prepare for the final, I would suggest that you review your lecture notes very
carefully. Based on the results of the midterm, it should be clear that the more familiar
you are with your notes, the more effective you will be in answering questions within the
time limits. I would also encourage you to pay special attention to your homework
questions (Homework 3 and 4).
I would also suggest that you review the video we watched in class which is to enhance
clarity and understanding of the existing notes. In addition, review the conclusions of
your group project and what you ‘learned’ from this. Finally, a list of
questions/suggestions is provided below that should serve as a good review. However
note that this list is not intended to include everything covered in the course
or on the final exam, but it’s a good start.
Lecture 7: Ozone Hole and Human Connection
1. Where does Ozone exist ? (troposphere, etc)
2. What is Ozone hole? (where, when, what change)
3. Why in October Antarctica we observed Ozone hole?
4. What are the major chemical interactions for Ozone depletion?
5. What is Montreal Protocol? And how does this affect Ozone depletion?
6. What is Ozone recovery? When Ozone is expected to recover?
Lecture 8: Carbon Cycle
7. What are the Earth’s perspectives?
8. What is carbon cycle, and why carbon cycle is important?
9. What are the speeds for carbon cycle? Give examples.
10. What is Carbon Conservation?
11. What is the relation between trees and CO2? What are the roles of respiration and
photosynthesis?
12. How does biosphere contribute to atmospheric CO2 diurnal and seasonal
variations?
13. What is the long-term trend of atmospheric CO2? Increase or decrease?
14. Where does the most carbon locate?
Lecture 9 (Future Impact from IPCC)
1. What is IPCC?
2. What is the major conclusion of IPCC 2007 on human activity on climate change?
3. Explain future temperature prediction.
4. What would the future sea level change?
5. What is mitigation?
6. What is Kyoto Protocol?
7. What are Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms?
8. What is emission trading?
9. Is CA active in reduce CO emission?
10.Why did the IPCC run climate models using different scenarios?
11.How are CO2 emissions and CO2 concentrations related?
12. How is CO2 concentrations and temperature related?
13.In IPCC, What are the different scenarios for climate change in terms of future
temperature?
14.What are the uncertainties in relation to predicting future climate change?
15.What is the current status of the protocol?
16.Why did the US not sign onto the Kyoto Protocol?
Lecture 10 (Natural Climate Forcing)
1. What are the names of period and epoch for current earth system? (Holocene
Epoch, Quaternary Period)
2. When was the time for Dinosaurs? (Mesozoic era)
3. How long is the Earth system history? (~3800 Ma)
4. Give examples for proxy of paleoclimate? (C14 and C18)
5. Explain why O18 can be used to refer paleoclimate.
6. What is the surface temperature and CO2 concentration in atmosphere?
7. Definitions of External Forcing and Internal Forcing. Give examples.
8. What may be the reasons for the warm during Cretaceous? (CO2, more water
vapor)
9. What is Sunspot? More Sunspots, Solar energy will be_____ (more)
10. How long is the cycle of sunspot activity? (~11 yrs)
11. What is the “Maunder Minimus”? (when and why?)
12. When is so-called “Little Ice Age”?
13. Who are the key scientists for oribit drift theory? (James Croll, Milutin
Milankovitch)
14. What is eccentricity, period of it is____?
15. What is precession, and its period is_____?
16. What is axis title, and its cycle is_________?
17. Small eccentricity, energy difference between summer and winter will be (high or
low?) than large eccentricity?
18. What are the examples for internal forcing?
Lecture 11 (Climate Feedback)
1. What is positive feedback? What is negative feedback? Draw carton to show.
2. Examples of positive feedback and negative feedback.
3. explain ice-albedo feedback. Water vapor feedback, clouds feedback.
4. Is clouds feedback a positive or negative feedback?
5. What is a water vapor feedback? Is this a positive or negative feedback?
6. What is a stable versus and unstable equilibrium?
Lecture 12 (Climate Modeling)
17. What is climate modeling?
18. What are the major components of a climate model? (Atmosphere, land, Ocean
and sea-ice, carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry, etc)
19. What is the approach for you to know the future climate? (climate modeling)
20. Why Ocean is critical in climate system?
21. What is the driving force for ocean surface currents?
22. What is ocean mixed layer? How deep of this layer is?
23.What is the role of ocean surface currents?
24.What are the differences between regional climate model and global climate
model?
25.What is model resolution?
26.What are the reasons for model uncertainties?
Lecture 13 (Weather Extremes)
1. What are the differences between climate and weather?
2. What are the major weather extremes?
3. How does Hurricane change in current changing climate?
4. Is extreme event a result of changing climate?
5. What is the change of sea level?
6. What is the change of glacier change?