Transcript Chapter 12 Air

Atmosphere and Climate
Change
Chapter 13
Essential Questions
What is a climate and what naturally
promotes climate change?
 What is the importance of our Ozone
Shield?
 What is global warming and how can we
stop it?

Climate

The long-term prevailing weather
conditions at a particular place based
upon records taken
What factors determine a
climate?
Latitude
 Atmospheric circulation patterns
 Oceanic circulation patterns
 Local geography
 Solar activity
 Volcanic activity

Latitude
Degrees North of South of the equator
 Equator is 0
 North Pole is 90 North
 South Pole is 90 South

Low Latitudes
Day and night average 12 hours each
every day
 Always warm temperature

Equatorial Regions

Vertical Sunlight
High Latitudes
Changes daylight because sun hits at
angles
 As much as 16 hours of daylight during
summer and only 8 hours of daylight
during the winter
 In the poles, it may be daylight out for
23 hours

Atmospheric Circulation
Cold air sinks
 Warm air rises
 Warm air can hold more water vapor
 When warm air holding water vapor
cools, it produces precipitation

Wind
As solar energy heats the earth, warm
air rises
 Cool air fills in the voids
 This movement of air produces wind
 Because there are different
temperatures at different latitudes,
winds blow in different directions

Prevailing Winds
Winds that blow in one direction
throughout the year
 Trade winds, westerlies, and polar
easterlies

Surface Ocean Currents
Caused by wind and influenced by
Earth’s rotation
 Not all ocean currents, just surface
ocean currents

El Nino

The name given to the short-term periodic
change in the location of warm and cold
water masses in the Pacific Ocean
 Generally over a 6 - 18 month period
 Pushes warm water eastward, increasing rain
in Southern US and Central America
 Winds push warm water eastward in the
Pacific Ocean
La Nina
The second half of the El Nino-Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) cycle
 Water is cooler than usual in the
eastern Pacific Ocean

Topography
Mount Kilimanjaro is located at 4
latitude
 How does it have snow on the top?

Volcanoes

How can volcanoes impact the
atmosphere?
Ozone Layer
An area in the stratosphere where
ozone is highly concentrated
 Molecule made of 3 Oxygen atoms
 Absorbs ultraviolet light

DNA Damage

Result of high UV radiation at Earth’s
surface
CFC’s
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s)
 Chemically unstable in stratosphere
 One chlorine can destroy 10,000 ozone
molecules

Ozone Hole
A thinning stratospheric ozone that
occurs over the poles in the spring
 50 - 98% disappears
 During Spring, warm winds bring heat to
poles
 Splits chlorine molecules and creates
hole

Ozone Molecules

Decomposed by chlorine atoms
Effects on Humans
Skin Cancer
 Premature Aging
 Increased Cataracts
 Weakened Immune System

Effects on Animals and Plants
Death of eggs
 Genetic mutations
 Reduction of populations
 Death of phytoplankton
 Disruption of food chain
 Reduction in photosynthesizes
 Interference with photosynthesis
 Reduced crop yields

Montreal Protocol
An agreement to sharply reduce CFC’s
 International limits on CFC production to
protect the ozone layer
 US pledged to ban all substances by
2000…..Its 2009
 CFC’s remain in atmosphere for 60 - 120
years, still destroying the ozone

Greenhouse Effect

Think about your car during the summer
 Light energy gets into your car through
windows, heating it up
 Greenhouse use this principle, trapping the
sun’s energy
 A process by which the atmosphere traps
heat radiate up from the Earth’s surface
Greenhouse Gases
Gases in the troposphere that can
absorb and radiate heat
 Water, Carbon Dioxide,
Chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and
nitrous oxide
 Water Vapor and Carbon Dioxide
account for the majority

What if we release more CO2?

We release carbon dioxide every time we
burn fuel, either in our cars, power plants,
generators, any time
 More CO2 in the atmosphere means that
more heat can be trapped
 More trapped heat leads to greater global
temperatures
 That’s just taking into consideration CO2
CO2

A greenhouse gas added to the
atmosphere when fossil fuels are
burned
Is Global Warming a Reality?

Is this just a naturally occurring cycle?
Consequences of a warmer
Earth?
Melting Ice and Rising Sea Levels
 Global Weather Patterns
 Human Health Problems
 Agriculture
 Effects on Plants and Animals

Kyoto Protocol
Reduce carbon dioxide emissions 5%
by 2011
 The US decided not to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol in 2001

Slowing Global Warming
Requires global unified effort
 Compromised by economics, politics,
and social factors
 Big difficulties between developed and
developing countries

Weather is a region’s:
 Atmospheric conditions on a given day

As cold air sinks:
 It compresses and warms

Elevation is a factor in climate because
under most conditions:
 Temperature falls as elevation increases

Seasonal changes in daylight hours and
climatic conditions are caused by:
 The 23.5 tilt of Earth’s axis

The ozone layer protects living
organisms on Earth by:
 Blocking solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation

Ozone holes appear in polar regions
during springtime when ozonedestroying:
 Chlorine atoms are released from polar
stratospheric clouds

Though CFC production has been
curtailed, the threat to upper
atmospheric ozone continues because
CFC’s
 Persist and continue to destroy ozone
for decades

Which of the following does not reduce
CO2 in the atmosphere?
 Animal respiration

A continuous record of annual average
atmospheric CO2 concentrations from
Mauna Loa, Hawaii, reveals:
 A steady increase since 1958

Which of the following would not be a
consequence of a rise in global
temperature?
 Increase polar ice mass
