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






2. O The amount of energy moving in the form of photons or other elementary particles at a certain distance from the source per unit of area per second. Area/second






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






4. Troposphere - Stratosphere (Ozone Layer) - Mesosphere - Ionosphere






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






6. In average: +1% in respect to 100 years ago.






7. SALTY WATER = MORE DENSE - Maximum density at 4OC - This is why ice melting is a big deal; if the whole circle slows down - Ice bergs are fresh water higher sea level rise.






8. Ocean retains ____ CO2






9. Number of days that exceed a given temperature






10. At the bottom of the ice sheets the temperature doesn't necessarily have to be above 0... it could _____ more easily because of the water






11. Set up in 1988 by WMO and UNEP.






12. Higher temperature increases atmospheric water vapor @ global scale more water vapor in the air that causes nights to stay warmer.






13. Reduction of snow and ice cover - Changes in atmospheric circulation.






14. A thick - floating slab of freshwater ice extending from coast to coast.






15. Same as heating an apartment v home - Thinner atmosphere than tropics; warms faster.






16. Atmosphere retains ____ CO2






17. Frozen +2 years - Few centimeters to 1500 m






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






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






20. The difference between the incoming radiation energy and the outgoing radiation energy - A measure of the net energy.






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






22. More common






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






24. Permafrost- A frozen soil






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






26. Arctic troposphere is thinner (8-10 km) than the tropics...The depth of the atmospheric layer is much shallower in the Arctic - It takes less energy to warm the Arctic rather than the Tropics - Same as heating an apartment vs. a house






27. Industry 40% - Buildings 31% - Transportations 22% - Agriculture 4%






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






29. Atmospheric Cooling - Both negative (stabilizing) feedbacks - It is not happening now - but it has happened in the past - Ice-albedo feedback was the dominant feedback during the ice ages.






30. The last portion of a glacier grounded to bedrock - after this line there are ice shelves.






31. Radiation that comes from the Sun - Visible light - 'near infrared' - ultraviolet radiation.






32. Ice melting rapidly? What type causes sea level to rise? What have been the main contributors to sea level rise so far? What are the impacts of melting ice? - On nature - On humans






33. High clouds are a ____ feedback; larger greenhouse warming - Clouds reflect shortwave radiation but also absorb longwave radiation






34. 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






35. Top layer of soil that thaws during the summer and freezes again during autumn. - Between 1 and 3 m thick.






36. Sea ice and continental ice. This is caused by Atmospheric warming triggers.






37. Melting Point decreases






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






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






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






41. The depletion of stratospheric ozone layer in Antarctica in Springtime (august through October)






42. Extent will increase the warming because less energy will be reflected back to the atmosphere by the ice and more will be absorbed by the ocean.






43. 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






44. 1. We live in troposphere. Greenhouse gases here warm up the Earth 2. Above stratosphere. The ozone in this layer protects us.






45. US is responsible for ___ of the total CO2






46. 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.






47. Massive cooldown has allowed colder conditions to persist leading to cfcs stabilizing leading to ozone depletion. Later - more warming will lead to more moisture in the air which will lead to more snowfall!






48. The last portion of a glacier grounded to bedrock - after this line there are ice shelves.






49. The transition of a substance from the solid phase directly to the vapor phase - or vice versa - without passing through an intermediate liquid phase.






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