Factors Of Climate Change Flashcards
Movement of Earth- Eccentricity of Orbit
NATURAL
- Axis- Imaginary line from N-S pole
- while rotating around sun it turns on its axis
- Travels as though on a flat surface
- Axis tilted 23.50
- Annual orbit + tilted axis = Seasons
- seasons change
- earth either heats up or cools down due to concentration of sun rays hitting its surface
Movement of Earth-eccentricity of Orbit
NATURAL
- Tilt changes by about 2.4degrees every 41000 yrs
- The greater tilt, the greater difference in summer/winter
- Earth tilt is 23.44 degrees
- Angle is slowly decreasing
Movement of Earth- wobble of rotation axis
NATURAL
Procession = change in the direction of the axis of rotation
Wobbling affects intensity of solar energy received by N and S hemisphere
Contrast in hemispherical climate change/ weather change and whether there will be major or minor variations
LATITUDE
NATURAL
sunlight hitting the equator perpendicularly is more concentrated then sunlight hitting poles where sunlights spread apart more
- Equator is much hotter then any other part
- Average temp slowly decreases as you move to the poles
- Latitude tilt of axis = seasons
ATMOSPHERE GREEN HOUSE EFFECT
NATURAL ANTHRO
Atmosphere(nitrogen oxygen water vapour) 560 km up from earth
-Earth absorbs thermal energy from sun and its surface
- helps maintain earth temp without this earth would be 340 cooler
P.s ( Anthropogenic - influenced by humans)
Atmosphere convection currents (wind)
NATURAL
- hot air and cold air = wind
- carries temp around world
- makes ocean current
- Carries hot air to colder regions and vice versa
- carries warm/ cold ocean water around world
- dries and wets various places
Solar Activity
NATURAL
- Irregular fluctuations in solar radiation
- Every 11 years a large amount of sun spots appear
- Been proposed to be main cause of climate change in past
Hydrosphere - heat reservoir
NATURAL
- water in different forms make up the hydrosphere
- hydrosphere and atmosphere transfer heat around earth
- oceans act as heat reservoirs
- Top 2.3m of ocean hold more heat then all the atmosphere
- oceans moderate temperatures
Hydrosphere heat reflector
(Blank)
- Amount of energy absorbed depends on colour if surface
- lighter surface reflects more energy
- since water absorbs more energy than land / ice the distribution of water surface area to land greatly affects avg global temp
Lithosphere tectonic plates
NATURAL
- Tectonic plates constantly moving
- Changing land affects air patterns which affects heat distribution
- mountain ranges affect temp and precipitation
- air/ wind pattern change affect heat distribution
Lithosphere volcanoes
NATURAL
-Molten rock and gases from earth is crust is spewed into atmosphere
- Volcanic ashes reflect solar radiation cooling earths climate
- Green house gases may also raise global temperature
Human activity
ANTHRO
-Influences by burning fossils fuels, coal, oil natural gas industrial revolution a period where many machines were invented and required more fossil fuels
Global warming various pollutants entering atmosphere thru smoke which leads to climate change
