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. Atmosphere retains ____ CO2






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






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






4. 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%






5. 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.






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






7. Less frequent and weaker






8. Sea ice - Continental ice sheets - Permafrost (frozen soil) - Mountain glaciers - Snow cover






9. 1.4 USA - 57 m total sea level equivalent






10. Rain is getting harder and the rain is lasting longer since the past couple of decades and will continue for that amount.






11. What can cause a change in the Earth's climate balance?






12. 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.






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






14. ~15% of incident solar energy (albedo 85)






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






16. Heat is provided by outside sources that flow down the continental slope to reach the deepest part of the glacier. High pressure decreases the melting point and favors melting.






17. Is unfrozen ground that is exposed to the ground surface and to a larger mass of unfrozen ground beneath it.






18. 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






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






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






21. Warming- positive feedback - Cooling- negative feedback.






22. Absolute thresholds - Monthly maximums and minimums - Threshold departures - Percentile departure - Atmospheric Water Vapor: More water vapor in the air - warmer nights!






23. 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.






24. 342 W/m squared - DWEC - These things reflect sunlight (30%): water vapor - clouds - dust particles - earth's surface






25. Where do greenhouse gases warm up the Earth?






26. Permafrost- A frozen soil






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






28. Surface Mass Balance is of the order of _____ melting is ____ times more.






29. LW - SW - 55% absorbed by surface






30. 1. Altimetry survey 2. Time-variable gravity 3. Ice motion + Regional Climate Modeling






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






32. Peru and Ecuador to the equatorial central pacific - Causes irregular warming in sea surface






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






34. The land-surface configuration that results from the melting of ground ice in a region where permafrost degrades is called Thermokarst.






35. Tundra absorbs more energy than ice and snow but less than scrubs and forest - and with those plants migrating towards the north - they will further contribute ot absorb more energy.






36. Number of days that exceed a given temperature






37. How much is the planet really warming?






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






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






40. The heat input is either driven by the 1- thermohaline circulation associated with sea ice formation. The direct influx of intermediate warmth water.






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






42. 85%






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






44. 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.






45. Occurs when there is not enough water available for a particular crop to grow at a particular time.Typically seen after!meteorological drought (when rainfall decreases) but before a hydrological drought






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






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






48. 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






49. 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






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