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Initial Publication Date: December 2, 2013
Unit 5 Study Guide: Climate Components and Models
Use this guide to help organize your knowledge. Then test yourself by quizzing yourself on the terms with the definitions hidden and by answering the concept questions!
New Vocabulary or Terminology
- climate system
A region's climate is generated by the climate system, which has five components: atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, land surface, and biosphere. Climate is a measure of the average pattern of variation in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count, and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time. Climate is different from weather, which only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region.
- feedback
A feedback is the modification or control of a process or system by its results or effects. An interaction between processes in the climate system is called a climate feedback when the result of an initial force triggers responses that in turn influence the initial one. A positive feedback intensifies the original response, and a negative feedback reduces it. (See
OSS Foundation's Climate Feedback/Sensitivity Tutorial for more details.)
- threshold
A threshold is the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be manifested. For the climate system, thresholds are points at which a force-response relationship changes.
- climate model
Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of attributes in the climate system (atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice). (See
NAS Climate Modeling Tutorial for more details.)
- forcing mechanism
A forcing mechanism is a process that alters the energy balance of the climate system (i.e., changes the relative balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared radiation from Earth). Such mechanisms include changes in solar irradiance, volcanic eruptions, and enhancement of the natural greenhouse effect by emissions of greenhouse gases.
- ice core
An ice core is a core sample that is removed from an ice sheet, most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica, Greenland, or high mountain glaciers elsewhere. As the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper, and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years. The properties of the ice and its inclusions can then be used to reconstruct a climatic record over the age range of the core, normally through isotopic analysis. This enables the reconstruction of local temperature records and the history of atmospheric composition.
- greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is the trapping of the sun's warmth in the planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface. (See
EPA's Greenhouse Effect Tutorial for more details.)
- greenhouse gas (GHG)
Greenhouse gases are gas compounds that contribute to the greenhouse effect. These gases allow direct sunlight (relative shortwave energy) to reach Earth's surface unimpeded. As the shortwave energy (that in the visible and ultraviolet portion of the spectra) heats the surface, longer-wave (infrared) energy (heat) is reradiated to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases absorb this energy, thereby allowing less heat to escape back to space, and "trapping" it in the lower atmosphere. Many greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide, while others are synthetic. Those that are human-made include the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), as well as sulfur hexafluoride (SF
6). (See
NOAA NCDC's Greenhouse Gases Tutorial for more details.)
- rate of change
Conceptual Questions
- How are climate models constructed?
- What factors increase uncertainty in climate models?
- Why do some climate models produce different outcomes than others?
- What role do greenhouse gases play in climate?
- Which greenhouse gas concentrations do current human activities impact, and how are we contributing these to the atmosphere?
- What role do feedbacks play in attempts to predict future climate change?
- What do ice cores tell us about methane and carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere over the past 400,000 years?
- If we know that greenhouse gases have fluctuated in Earth's atmosphere in the past, why are we concerned about an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere right now?
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