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. Positive Albedo Feedback - increase in temperature melts ice and snow reduces albedo increases temperature melts ice and snow reduces albedo... ETC






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






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






4. 240 w/m squared






5. Average molecular life span is less than 10 years - Major sources: Wetlands and oceans - Raising cattle and landfills.






6. 78% nitrogen - 28% oxygen - Greenhouse gases: Have a more complex molecular structure and can absorb and re:radiate heat in all directions.






7. 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






8. 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%






9. 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






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






11. Wet gets _____ - dry gets ____ - Wet - 50ON (sub polar) Canada - N Europe - Russia - Tropical area- monsoon (rainforest) - Drier - Subtropics - Australia - S. Africa - Mediterranean - Caribbean - Mexico - SW US






12. Warming- positive feedback - Cooling- negative feedback.






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






14. 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.






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






16. 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.






17. 20% human produced CO2 emissions. Tropical forests hold around 50% of the carbon present in vegetation on Earth.






18. 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






19. 85%






20. 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






21. 1. Land usage changes 2. Seasonal timing 3. Rising CO2 levels may be a factor






22. Pollution: heat and sunlight cook the air and the chemical compounds which are in it. This combines with the nitrogen oxide and creates 'smog'. This makes breathing difficult for those with respiratory ailments.






23. Ozone layer in high stratosphere (25-40 km altitude) absorbs about 95-99% of ultraviolet radiation.






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






25. LW - SW - 55% absorbed by surface






26. Longwave radiation - any radiation with a long wave will heat up quickly.






27. More common






28. 1.4 USA - 57 m total sea level equivalent






29. Most of the deserts are around 30 N and 30 S - where sinking air predominates






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






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






32. 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






33. 1. They are the largest contributor to sea level rise 2. Can affect the thermohaline circulation (mainly in Greenland) 3. Are directly connected to climate change






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






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






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






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






38. Where does the ozone protect us?






39. Slow steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of Earth's stratospheric ozone.






40. Total absorbed solar radiation






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






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






43. 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.






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






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






46. Volcanic eruptions - Sunspots - Wobbly Earth






47. When meltwater seeps through a flowing glacier - it can lubricate the base and hasten the glacier's seaward flow.






48. Closed talik can develop when lakes fill in with sediment and become deposits of dead plant material (bog).






49. The amount of light reflected by an object.






50. 2ppm of the atmosphere - less than 20% of greenhouse gases - 1/3 greenhouse gases effect of CO2