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. 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






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






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






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






5. ~10% of incident solar energy (albedo 90)






6. 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






7. The buoyant force is equal to the weight of the displaced water.


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






9. Refers to the irregular warming in the Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) from the coasts of Peru and Ecuador to the equatorial central Pacific - the Southern Oscillation






10. Forms in a mosaic of favoured locations.






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






12. CO2 - CH4 - O3 - H2O - N2O - CFCs






13. 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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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






19. Volcanic eruptions - Sunspots - Wobbly Earth






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






21. 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.






22. 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.






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






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






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






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






27. 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






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






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






30. Melting Point decreases






31. 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






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






33. If the Earth is warmer - are we going to have the Hadley cell stronger or weaker? Hotter = heat rises which increases the circulation.






34. 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.






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






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






37. An area of unfrozen ground that is open to the ground surface but otherwise enclosed in permafrost.






38. 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%






39. 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






40. A climate forcing agent formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels - biofuel - and biomass; emitted both anthropogenic:ally and naturally.






41. Due to a set of mutually reinforcing processes - climate change appears to be progressing in the arctic more quickly than in any other region on Earth.






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






43. In _______ - the inversions are less frequent and weaker in the Arctic.






44. Ocean retains ____ CO2






45. 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) -






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






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






48. Changes in the Earth's solar radiation levels can impact the climate. Shortterm warming cycles on Earth.






49. 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






50. How often does El Nio occur?