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






2. Soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years - Can be: Terrestrial - Subsea - Can be: Continuous: exists across a landscape as an unbroken layer. More than 90% is frozen - Discontinuous






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






4. Greenhouse gases are mixed in the ____






5. Climate models suggest once the sea ice cover is thinned sufficiently - a strong kick from natural variability could initiate a rapid slide towards ice-free conditions in the summer.






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






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






8. US is responsible for ___ of the total CO2






9. 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.






10. Pockets of ice in the topmost permafrost caused by thawing which create an underground lake.






11. Some parts of the planet are dry because of their location: most of the deserts are around 30 N and 30 S - where sinking air predominates






12. Really measures volume.






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






14. Reduction of Summer Sea- 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 - Snow and snow covered ice absorb 15% of incident solar energy - Ice absorbs 10% of inc






15. The amount of light reflected by an object.






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






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






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






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






20. The Earth emits this.






21. Greenhouse gases are a ___ portion of the atmosphere






22. Atmosphere retains ____ CO2






23. The air can hold less water vapor - Consequently - less water can be evaporated in the air - and only a small portion of energy is used in this process - Most of the energy that reaches the Arctic goes directly into warming the air






24. Where do greenhouse gases warm up the Earth?






25. The past climate...for this reason - both keep good records of climate change.






26. he increase of ozone concentration in the atmosphere helps ____ our planet






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






28. 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






29. A process whereby slabs of ice at the glacier margin mechanically fracture and detach from the main ice mass -






30. 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






31. InSAR - +snow/-ice loss - ice dynamics - requires a lot of data.






32. Hydrological drought is associated with the effect of low rainfall on water levels in rivers -!reservoirs -!lakes and aquifers.






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






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






35. Number of days that exceed a given temperature






36. Laser radar - H V - Long time series - high accuracy - Density






37. Is not an externally imposed perturbation to the climate system.






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






39. Temperature needed to melt at depth is much lower than that needed to melt at the surface.






40. If the mean annual air temperature is only slightly below 0 degrees C - permafrost will form only in spots that are sheltered.






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






42. 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!






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






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






45. 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






46. 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:






47. Over the past century what has happened to the Earth's temperature?






48. 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






49. 85%






50. Long time series started in the '70s and yielding good data in the '90s - Detects elevation with high accuracy: 10 cm precision (laser) to 1 m (radar) - 2/3 Gravity Surveys (GRACE) - Weighing the total mass every 30 days - Direct monthly estimate