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Chapter 15- Geology
The Climate System
17
Geology
Undergraduate 1
04/10/2010

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Term
Definition of Climate
Definition
The average surface conditions and their variation during these cycles of solar forcing.
Term
Which are the parts of the climate system?
Definition
It includes all parts of the Earth system and all the interactions needed to explain how climate behaves in space and time. The main components of the climate system are the atmosphere, hyrdosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere.
Term
What are the layers of the Atmosphere?
Definition
Troposphere, the lowest layer with an average thickness of 11 km and convects vigorously owing to surface heating by the Sun. The above layer is the stratosphere a colder, dryer layer that extends to an altitude of about 50 km.
Term
Percentages of salt water and fresh water
Definition
one percent
Term
What is Thermohaline Circulation? And how is it driven?
Definition
A three-dimensional pattern of ocean circulation driven by differences in temperature and salinity that is an important componentof the ocean-atmosphere climate system.
Term
Definition of Weather
Definition
Atmospheric changes with short time scales of few weeks.
Term
Atmosphere composition
Definition
molecular nitrogen (78vol%) oxygen (21vol%) other gases (argon, carbon, dioxide, water vapor, ozone, methane, etc.)
Term
Cryosphere
Definition
The ice component of the climate system that consists of ice caps, glaciers, floatingice, sea ice, and frozen lakes and river.
Term
Lithosphere
Definition
The land surface is the most important to the climate system, makes up 30 percent of Earth's total area.
Term
What is biosphere?
Definition
Comprises all organisms living near Earth's surface: plants, animals, and microbes, both marine and terrestrial.
Term
what effects does the lithosphere have on the climate?
Definition
Absorbs solar energy, emits thermal radiation, topography affects wind and rain patterns, volcanism affects atmospheric dust level, weathering effects atmospheric composition.
Term
What is albedo?
Definition
The reflectivity of solar radiation at a surface.
Term
What is the greenhouse effect?
Definition
A global warming effect in which the planet with an atmosphere containing greenhouse gases radiates solar energy back into space less efficiently than it would without an atmosphere.
Term
What was the last ice age?
Definition
Pleistocene ice age
Term
What was the name of the last glaciation?
Definition
Wisconsin glaciation
Term
When was the last peak?
Definition
18,000 yrs ago
Term
What are the Milankovitch cycles?
Definition
Astronomical cycles that cause periodic variations in the amount of heat Earth receives from the Sun. Such cycles include the eccentricity of Earth's orbit; the tilt of Earth's axis of rotation; and precession, Earth's wobble about its axis of rotation.
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