SS Section 1 Flashcards
(106 cards)
1
Q
Pleistocene era
A
An ice age that ended 11,700 years ago.
2
Q
What did humans do during the Pleistocene era
A
They migrated around the world
3
Q
When did the era of human growth begin
A
less than 12,000 years ago
4
Q
Did our ancestors have control over their changing climate
A
No
5
Q
What is causing the current climate change
A
Burning fossil fuels
6
Q
Earth system science or ESS
A
An approach to study the natural worlds that looks at the Earth’s land, oceans, and atmosphere as a single system
7
Q
How new is ESS
A
ESS is relatively new field
8
Q
Troposphere
A
The layer of the atmosphere that is closest to the earth
9
Q
Troposphere height
A
0km to 12km-18km
10
Q
Troposphere Temp.
A
15C to -56.5C
11
Q
Stratosphere height
A
11km to 50km
12
Q
Stratosphere temp
A
-56.5C to -2.5C
13
Q
Mesosphere
A
The layer of the atmosphere that is the third farthest away from Earth
14
Q
Mesosphere height
A
40-50km to 80-90km
15
Q
Mesosphere temp
A
-2.5C to -86.5C
16
Q
Thermosphere
A
The second farthest layer of the atmosphere from earth
17
Q
Thermosphere height
A
80-90km to 800km
18
Q
Thermosphere temp
A
-86.5C to 1200C
19
Q
Exosphere
A
The farthest layer of the atmosphere from Earth
20
Q
Exosphere height
A
800km to 3000km
21
Q
Exosphere temp
A
1200C
22
Q
Subsystems
A
The different parts of ESS
23
Q
Geosphere
A
Earth and rock
24
Q
Hydrosphere
A
water and ice
25
atmosphere
air
26
biosphere
living organisms
27
What can the subsystems do
They can interact to shape the weather and climate
28
Forcings
External forces that can alter the stability of the weather and climate
29
Negative and Positive Feedbacks
Reactions from forcings
30
Scale
The size on which something is happening
31
Lithosphere
Synonym for geosphere
32
Geological Time scale
A time period which can take millions to billions of years
33
What can happen if a large volcano erupts
A time of short cooling can occur. If the volcano is big enough the cooling might be felt on a global scale.
34
What do mountain ranges cause
They cause rain to form
35
Cryosphere
A subsystem used by some scholars that includes only ice.
36
Climate Change in the hydrosphere
The polar ice caps are melting, is one of the most focused on effects of climate change
37
Layer of atmosphere from lowest to highest
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere
38
Greenhouse effect
occurs when gasses in the atmosphere trap heat in the atmosphere
39
Is the greenhouse effect good
Yes, but only in moderation. Not like the greenhouse effect we are receiving today
40
What can cause the Greenhouse effect to increase
To many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
41
Earth's Climate System
The different parts that combine to shape the climate around the globe
42
What is a vital source of external energy for the earth
Solar energy
43
Three influenctial forcings are
solar energy, volcanos, greenhouse gases
44
Solar Energy
Energy form the sun that heats up the earth
45
The amount of energy transferred from the Sun to the Earth is not completely consistent over ____ and ____
time and space
46
A period of lower sun temps. and fewer sunspots relates to
cool temps. in the North Hemisphere during early 1600s and late 1700s
47
What has been a driver of climate change for hundreds of thousands of years
the earth's movement and its relation to the sun
48
Milankovitch cycle intervals
26,000, 41,000, and 100,000 years
49
What can happen with back to back volcanic eruptions
The cooling effect of the ahs and debris will be felt over a larger area or even on a global scale
50
What are some of the gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect
Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane
51
What happens when forcings begin to change the climate
The four subsystems are impacted in different ways
52
What is an example of an feedback
the melting of sheets of ice in the North Pole
53
Why are the sheets of ice melting in the north pole
this is due to a forcing
54
What happens to some solar radiations
It is reflected by the Earth and its atmosphere
55
What happens to most solar radiation
It is absorbed by the Earths surface and also warms it
56
What happens to infrared radiation that is effect by the greenhouse gases
It passes through the atmosphere. Some gets absorbed and re-emitted in all direction by greenhouse gases
57
What happens when infrared radiation is effected by greenhouse gases
It heats up the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere
58
Does the Earth's surface emit infrared radiation
Yes
59
What does a positive feedback mean
It means a reaction from a forcing that pushes the environment the same direction that climate change is pushing
60
What does a negative feedback mean
It means that a reaction from a forcing pushed the opposite direction from which climate change was originally pushing it
61
Tipping point
A point at which the climate cannot be saved
62
Archive
Evidence of past events typically a write n document
63
Archives of Society
Climate conditions that have been recorded by humans
64
Archives of Nature
Climate conditions that have been recorded in nature.
65
Example of an Archive of Nature3
A plant growing more because there i s more of a certain gas in the atmosphere
66
Proxy
Something observable in nature that gives an indication of past climate conditions
67
What are three of the most revealing sources of climate history
ice, trees, and soil
68
Ice Core Sampling
Drilling long cylinders of ice out of deep glaciers to be analyzed for climate conditions
69
Why does Ice core sampling work
Snow fall traps particle from the atmosphere then becomes ice. So we can analyze the ice for these particles
70
How can Trees be analyzed for climate conditions
Scientist can observe the rings for the climate condition of that time
71
Why does analyzing a tree work
It works because a tree's rings change slightly when the weather/climate changes.
72
Sedimentation
The layers of sediment or mud on the bottom of lakes
and the ocean contain information about the water
73
Coral Sampling
Reveals past composition and temperatures of oceans
74
Example of Narrative records
Ship logbook
75
What is an other type of record
A painting
76
What is the problem with paintings
they aren't always reliable
77
Scholarly field
A group of scholars who study evidence in the same way
78
Witch fields offer complementary view of climate history
historical climatology, paleoclimatology, climate history, and the history of climate and society
79
Which two fields are the same thing but with different names
Historical Climatology and Paleoclimatology
80
What do the fields of historical climatology and paleoclimatology study
they study the climates of the past, usually before the 1800s
81
What are some skills that historical climatology and paleoclimatology use
Collecting samples from nature, operating machinery or instruments to analyze samples, and analyzing data obtained from nature
82
What do climate historians do
they collect and study sources from the archives of society
83
What are skills that climate historians need
Being able to read the language of the text, ability to find text, analytical techniques, and the contextual knowledge to interpret these texts accurately
84
Who was an influential pioneer in climate history
Christian Pfister
85
When was Christian Pfister born
1944
86
Is the History of Climate (HCS) and Society an old field
no
87
Who is leading the push to form and name HCS
Dagomar Degroot
88
What does HCS do
They try and see how climate has impacted the human society
89
What does scale mean in context to HCS
the area of ones investigation
90
What does HCS emphasize
it emphasizes the importance of scale
91
What is the primary cause of current global warming
humans releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
92
Anthropcene
It is a term that emphasizes the fact that humans are to be responsible for this change in climate
93
What does "Anthro" mean
human
94
Why would the adoption of the term Anthropocene be so major
It would say that we have left the stable and relatively peaceful Holocene
95
Why are scientists hesitant to adopt the term Anthropocene
They don't know if we have enough evidence to justify the change in period
96
Why is combining human and climate history so hard
This is because it is hard to determine if one event happened because of another event or if they happen coincidentally
97
Climate determinism
Climate sets the course for human history
98
What is the challenge with scales for combining human and climate history
The history of human kind is like blink in the massive scale of climate history
99
Rachel Carson
The person credited with humans see how much we can alter the Earth
100
Silent Spring
The book that helped humans realize how much they could impact the Earth
101
What is a challenge that comes with the Anthropocene
It is so new that we have to start changing old narratives and methods to account for the changing of the Holocene
102
How do eruptions of a volcano affect the environment
The ash and debris block the sunlight
103
How powerful are the Milankovitch cycles
They can pull Earth in and out of ice ages
104
What does the term greenhouse gases refer to
Greenhouses, a building that traps heat form the sun and are used for agriculture.
105
Milankovitch cycle
A cycle that determines when the earth will get more or less sunlight
106
Stratosphere
The second closest layer of the atmosphere from earth
