Test your basic knowledge |

Global Warming

Subjects : literacy, science
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. ~15% of incident solar energy (albedo 85)






2. Trade winds blow from East to West - Pool of warm water in the west - Meanwhile deep colder water rises up in the Eastern Pacific - The sea level is ~ 50-60 cm higher in Western Pacific (Indonesia) than in the Eastern Pacific (South America/Peru) -






3. Fresh snow and snow-covered sea ice may have an albedo higher than 80% - even when melting in the summer. Sea ice has a higher albedo and can absorb as little as 10% of the solar energy. On average - sea ice albedo is around 85%






4. Less frequent and weaker






5. In troposphere = greenhouse warming gas - However - most of it is in the stratosphere.






6. Is best viewed as a combination of...- Natural Variability - Associated with atmospheric circulation patterns - Growing Radiative Forcing - Associated with rising concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases - Strongly suggests a human influence.






7. Much of the Arctic is overlain by snow and sea ice (land ice and sea ice) - It makes warming a much bigger deal in the Arctic






8. Permafrost- A frozen soil






9. 78% nitrogen - 28% oxygen - Greenhouse gases: Have a more complex molecular structure and can absorb and re:radiate heat in all directions.






10. Arctic warms faster than other parts of the globe in response to a given increase in greenhouse gasses - More direct route to warming - In the Arctic a greater fraction of any increase in radiation absorbed by the surface goes directly into warming t






11. Forms from frozen ocean water - Floats on the ocean surface - Grows over the winter - melts in the summer






12. 240 w/m squared






13. Number of days when temperatures climb above average by a fixed amount.






14. Floating extensions are ice shelves - rivers of ice are ice streams or outlet glaciers - the junctions with the ocean are called the grounding line.






15. Carbon dioxide - Methane - Ozone - Water Vapor - Few others - Most ___________________ are mixed in the troposphere (Except water vapor) - Water vapor is concentrated closer to the ground.






16. When inversion breaks up _______________. - Consequently - anything that breaks inversions or makes them form less often could produce major ground level warming.






17. Betts et al found that: if CO-2 __________ this has a physiological effect on plant transpiration increased simulated runoff by 6% b. How? i. More CO2 1. Plants pores open less 2. This reduces transpiration 3. More water in the land surface






18. Sea ice extent in Antarctica is rapidly reducing. Seasonal variability. People - Animals and Ice






19. A mass of land ice - continental or sub-continental in extent - and thick enough to cover most of the underlying bedrock topography - If you have a warm ocean - it will melt the ice sheet. Its shape is mainly determined by the dynamics of its outward






20. In ________- inversion layer is more common in the Arctic






21. South polar vortex - Temperatures drop below 80O Celsius in the lower stratosphere - At these temperatures the chemicals in the stratosphere freeze and form Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCS) - These increase the concentration of CFCs in turn destroyi






22. SMB- mass balance due to processes that affect the surface of the ice sheet. Precipitation- evapotranspiration-runoff-blowing snow etc.






23. Measures input and output.






24. Amount of light absorbed by surface






25. Unfrozen ground that is found within a mass of permafrost






26. Sea ice - Glaciers and Ice sheets - Alaska- ice glaciers - Greenland- ice sheets






27. Precipitation extremes appear to generally increase across the planet at especially high latitudes.






28. All processes that add snow or ice to a glacier or to flowing ice or snow cover.






29. The warmer the temperature - the deeper the active layer - thaws and refreezes every year - Permafrost below freezing for two or more years.






30. The high pressure decreases the melting point and favors melting - Melt water being less dense rises along the water column along the ice shelf bottom and may either escape the cavity or refreeze at some intermediate depth. Melting point decreases:






31. Nitrogen (N2 78%) and Oxygen (O2 21%) - Their linear 2 atom molecular structure






32. 2ppm of the atmosphere - less than 20% of greenhouse gases - 1/3 greenhouse gases effect of CO2






33. Under higher pressure the melting point decreases ____ - The pressure comes from the weight of the ice shelf.






34. Industrial product - 300 ppb (parts per billion)






35. Rainy on yearly average. In these regions - rising air predominates.






36. Same amount of H2O - Mass does not change - Density of ice < density of water - Volume of ice > volume of water






37. Help darkens the snow and ice surface - increasing the amount of energy that is absorbed.






38. Really measures volume.






39. A naturally or artificially caused decrease in the thickness and/or areal extent of permafrost - It is caused by the deepening fo the active layer and the thawing of the adjacent permafrost.






40. Changes over time in the highest and lowest single temperature observed during a given month of the year.






41. By contrast reflects only about 7% of solar radiation (Albedo~7%) - absorbing 93%.






42. Refers to a body of freshwater - usually shallow - formed in a depression by melt water from thawing permafrost.






43. Warming- positive feedback - Cooling- negative feedback.






44. Holds unique and key information - Are highly interconnected - Respond and drive climate change - Are the largest freshwater reservoirs of the planet - Ice cores tell us that in climate records - nothing is regular and ice sheet plays major role.






45. Concentration of 380 ppmv - Have risen about 40% - Preindustrial~ 270~280 ppmv






46. Water vapor - 36-70% - carbon dioxide - 9-26% - methane - 4-9% - ozone - 3-7%






47. Grounding line is the last portion of a glacier grounded to bedrock - after this line there are ice shelves - Glaciers contribute to sea level rise after passing the grounding line - Maximum thinning at grounding line.






48. x7 smaller - 7m total sea level equivalent.






49. Total absorbed solar radiation






50. Low clouds are a ____ feedback; they will reflect more sunlight. Clouds reflect shortwave radiation but also absorb longwave radiation