Water Flashcards
(135 cards)
What is the hydrological cycle?
- A conceptual model that can be evaluated at a number of levels of complexity for different purposes
How much water is in the atmosphere?
- Water in the atmosphere is a tiny proportion compared to that in the ocean.
- Potentially 13,000 km3 water- need to have a vague idea of this figure in order to manage water resources for human activities like agriculture, domestic etc
- Direct measure of water in the atmosphere- there is limited spatial and temporal coverage
- Indirect measurement- repeat survey (daily at 250m)
What does Charline (1992) say about water estimates?
- Underground water may be incorrect by a factor of 2 to 4.
What is unusual about extreme weather conditions in America at the moment?
- There have been a higher frequency of such occurrences.
What is an element characterised by?
- The number of protons in it
What can change in an element?
- May have different numbers of neutrons which changes the elements atomic weights.
What does mass spectrometry allow us to do?
- Analyse the isotopic composition of materials
How are oxygen isotopes usually characterised?
- Using the ratio of 18O to 16O
How are hydrogen isotopes usually characterised?
- Using the ratio of 2H to 1H
What do 18O to 16O and H2 and H1 have in common?
- They are all considered to be stable isotopes
- 3H is occasionally used as a tracer because it decays radioactively.
In the hydrological cycle why do the elements of oxygen and hydrogen end up having successive fractionation?
- The isotopes have different vapour pressures
- e.g. When water evaporates from the ocean the oxygen elements are at -12% vapour while the hydrogen is at -87%
Describe isotopes in UK precipitation
- Great variability in oxygen 18 and 16 at daily and seasonal scales.
- This can be partly explained by the evolution of storms and temperature variations but also because of the Standard Mean Ocean Water.
What are the oxygen elements at in SMOW?
- 0%
What does SMOW stand for?
- Standard Mean Ocean Water
What is the equation of continuity or mass conservation?
- Flow in - store- flow out
- If system is at a steady state, then flow in = flow out
- So store/flow in = store/ flow out = residence or turnover time
How does water get back into the atmosphere?
- Evapotranspiration is a complex process involving net radiation, soil heat flux, vapour pressure, deficit of air, air density and specific heat, vapour pressure as a function of temperature, surface and aerodynamic resistances and relationship between partial pressure of water in air to air temperature.
- Difficult to measure
What does Charney (1975) say about albedo?
- Changes in albedo as a function of vegetation growth has a positive feedback on rainfall in the Sahel.
- Vegetation has lower albedo, thus leading to more surface heating, stronger land-ocean temperature ocean gradients, which in turn enhance monsoonal circulation in the tropics.
Who proved that Charney (1975) was wrong about his theory on albedo?
- Wendell and Easton (1983)
What is the alternative to Charney’s theory about albedo?
- Entekhabi (1992) suggests that the reprecipitation of moisture that is evapotranspired from vegetation is more likely to lead to feedback at a regional level.
What is the difficulty with measuring global-scale processes?
- They’re difficult to visualise and their measurement is not straightforward.
- Recognising and dealing with uncertainty is a fundamental part of the analysis of the the earths systems
What are some of the ways that are being used to predict global scale processes?
- Satellite, isotopic and other advanced techniques
- Evaluate the stores and fluxes of water at catchment to global scales.
What is the hydrological cycle a cycle of?
- Cycling of water of 3 major reservoirs
- Oceans- atmosphere- atmosphere
What are the different types of water on earth?
- 97% water is saltwater
- 3% water is saltwater
- Volume of water in the atmosphere is about 0.001 percent of that on the whole earth
In order from highest to lowest which state conversions use the most energy?
- Conversion from gas to solid vv (2.83MJ/Kg)
- Conversion from gas to liquid vv (2.5Mj/Kg)
- Conversion from solid to liquid vv (0.33Mj/Kg)