Factors of Climate
ATMOSPHERIC GASES
What does it control?
What are the effects when it changes?
Can Humans alter this factor or process? If so, how?
- 🔺 TEMPERATURE
- Greenhouse gases like water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) absorb energy, slowing or preventing the loss of heat to space. In this way, GHGs act like a blanket, making Earth warmer than it would otherwise be. This process is commonly known as the “greenhouse effect.”
What are the effects when it changes?
- Over the last several hundred thousand years, CO2 levels varied in tandem with the glacial cycles. During warm "inter glacial" periods, CO2 levels were higher. During cool "glacial" periods, CO2 levels were lower. The heating or cooling of Earth’s surface and oceans can cause changes in the natural sources and sinks of these gases, and thus change greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. These changing concentrations are thought to have acted as a positive feedback, amplifying the temperature changes caused by long-term shifts in Earth’s orbit.
- Freezing = lowers sea level
Thawing = increase in sea level
Living Organisms-habitat change
Ocean Currents-influence upwelling, drought or flooding
Surface Albedo- more or less ice changes reflectivity and the amount of the sun’s energy that is absorbed or reflected
Can Humans alter this factor or process? If so, how?
- Human activities such as burning fossil fuels and biomass contribute to emissions of these substances.
- YES, humans alter amounts and types of greenhouse gases.
- Examples: combustion, deforestation, agriculture
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