Chapter 15 Flashcards
(22 cards)
Albedo
The fraction of solar energy reflected by a surface.
Interglacial Period
The warm period of a glacial cycle during which ice sheets melt, water is transferred from the cryosphere to the hydrosphere, and sea level rises.
Climate Model
Any representation of the climate system constructed to reproduce one or more aspects of its behaviour.
Milankovitch Cycle
A pattern of periodic variations in Earth’s movement around the Sun that affects the amount of solar energy received at Earth’s surface. Milankovitch cycles include variations in the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit, the tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation, and precession—Earth’s wobble about its axis of rotation.
ENSO
A natural cycle of variation in the exchange of heat between the atmosphere and the tropical Pacific Ocean, of which El Nino and a complementary cooling event, known as La Nina, are a part.
Negative Feedback
A process in which one action produces an effect that tends to counteract the original action and stabilize the system against change.
Geochemical Reservoir
A component of the Earth system where a chemical is stored at some point in its geochemical cycle.
Ocean Acidification
A process in which carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves into the ocean and reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, increasing the acidity of the ocean.
Greenhouse Effect
A global warming effect that results when a planet with an atmosphere containing greenhouse gases radiates solar energy back into space less efficiently than it would without such an atmosphere.
Positive Feedback
A process in which one action produces an effect that tends to enhance the original action and amplify change in the system.
Ice Age
The cold period of a glacial cycle, during which Earth cools, water is transferred from the hydrosphere to the cryosphere, ice sheets expand, and sea level drops
Residence Time
The average time an atom of a particular elements spends in a geochemical reservoir before leaving it.
Carbon Cycle
The continual movement of carbon among different components of the Earth system.
El Nino
An anomalous warming of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that occurs every 3 to 7 years and lasts for a year or so.
Geochemical Cycle
The pattern of flux of a chemical from one component of the Earth system to another.
Glacial Cycle
A climate cycle alternating between cold glacial periods, or ice ages, during which temperatures decline, water is transferred from the hydrosphere t the cryosphere, ice sheets expand into lower latitudes, and sea level falls, and warm interglacial periods, during which temperatures rise abruptly, water is transferred from the cryosphere to the hydrosphere, and sea level rises.
Greenhouse Effects
A gas that absorbs and reradiates energy when it is present in a planet’s atmosphere Greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere include water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane.
Solar Forcing
Cyclical variation in the amount of solar received at Earth’s surface.
Stratosphere
The cold, dry layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere that extends from about 11 to 50 km in altitude.
Thermohaline Circulation
A global three-dimensional oceanic circulation pattern driven by differences in the temperature and the salinity - and therefore in the density - of ocean water.
Troposphere
The lowest layer of the atmosphere, which has an average thickness of about 11 km, contains about three-fourths of the atmosphere’s mass, and convects vigorously due to the uneven heating of Earth’s surface by the sun.
20th Century Warming
The rise in Earth’s average surface temperature by about 0.6 degrees celsius between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the of the 21st century.
