Chapter 15

incoming solar radiation and energy input which varies by latitude and where the subsolar point is located

the point at which the sun is directly overhead

70%. It reflects the rest into space.

Infrared radiation.

greenhouse gases absorb a portion of radiation emitted from earth’s surface and trap it in the atmosphere.

warm air rises, leading to low pressure at the surface, resulting in rainy, cloudy, or snowy weather.

When air cools, it descends, leading to high pressure at the surface, resulting in clear weather.

warming near the equator creates warm (less dense) rising air which creates low pressure at the surface and it creates the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) where trade winds converge.

dry air near the equator is heated as it compresses towards the surface of the atmosphere, it creates high pressure when it cools and sinks in the subtropics

confrontation between the warm westerlies and colder dry air from the poles. This pushes up the bulk of air towards the equator, creating a low pressure belt.

relatively weak

A measurement of the reflective properties of surfaces

co2, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and chloroflourocarbons.

controlled by latitude, altitude, land-water heating differences, and cloud cover.

It warms Europe, rapid melting of Greenland’s ice sheet could interrupt the flow of heat and cause Europe to cool dramatically.

sea levels rise because water expands as it warms, glaciers and ice sheets and melting, and groundwater we extract eventually reaches the ocean

records that give us data about temperature, ice cover, or rain, like tree rings, ice cores, and sediments.

an axial wobble that occurs every 19-23,000 years.

a 3 degree shift in the tilt of earth’s axis that occurs every 41,000 years.

A variation in earth’s orbit from almost circular to more elliptical which happens every 100,000 years.

a measure of the influence that a climatic factor has in altering the balance of incoming and outgoing energy like ice albedo or tropospheric aerosols.

negative forcing factors like low lying clouds, snow and ice, volcanoes, sulfate aerosols.

1 kg of fossil fuel burned produces 3 kg of co2, other greenhouse gases.

the cfs of different greenhouse gases is described relative to that of carbon dioxide (global warming potential = gwp) co2 has a gwp of 1. Lifetime in atmosphere is 100 years.