| What are two factors that determine the density of the water? | The temperature and salinity. |
| What are the two ways that heat energy is distributed around the Earth? | Atmospheric circulation and Ocean currents. |
| How can circulation cells transfer heat? | Air warmed at the equator rises causing low pressure. They move north and south to create HADLEY CELLS. At latitudes of 30° north and south, the air cools and sinks, creating high pressure.
Some cool air flow back to the equator as SURFACE TRADE WINDS, and the rest move towards the poles firing the FERREL CELLS.
At attitudes 60° north and south, the warm air from the ferrel cells meet the cold polar air at the polar fronts. A polar jet stream is formed above this, driving unstable atmosphere. The warmer air rises forming POLAR CELLS which travels north or south towards the poles, sinking to form high pressured areas. |
| How can ocean currents transfer heat? | At the Arctic and Antarctic, the poles, the cold water sinks towards the bottom of the sea.
Away from the poles, the water is warmer due to more intense solar radiation.
As the cold water sinks, the warm water from lower latitudes replace it, creating a current.
When the warm water gets closer to the poles, it cools and sinks and the process repeats. |
| Identify the global atmospheric circulation cell located between 30° latitude and the equator. (1 mark) | Hadley cells. |
| What is the greenhouse effect? | When heat from that is radiated from the Earth and gets trapped inside the atmosphere due to greenhouse gases like water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane. |
| What are some natural causes of climate change? | Orbital changes - Eccentricity, Axial tilt, Precession.
Volcanic eruptions.
Solar output. |
| What is eccentricity? | When the Earths orbit changes from circular in warmer periods to elliptical, creating cooler periods every 100,000 years. |
| What is axial tilt? | The Earths tilt varies between 22.1° and 24.5° because of the gravitational pull of the moon, every 41,000 years. A larger tilt leads to warmer periods. |
| What is precession? | When the earth wobbles while spinning, affecting the severity of the seasons in a hemisphere. |
| How can volcanic eruptions contribute to climate change? | When a volcano erupts, a large amount of sulphur dioxide and ash cloud is released into the atmosphere. The sulphur dioxide and ash clouds reflects nearly all radiation, reducing the amount of radiation entering the Earths atmosphere. Creating global cooling.
But, the releasing of carbon dioxide has also created global warming due to it being a greenhouse gas. |
| How can industry contribute to climate change? | Factories burn fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They also emit nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases and cement production releases greenhouse gases. This causes the Earth to warm up.
We use industry for power, but it can cause air/ water pollution although it's cheap. |
| How can farming contribute to climate change? | Farming of livestock like cows and rice paddy fields produces methane gas, contributing to the greenhouse effect by having 21x more power than carbon dioxide.
It produces food and provides jobs although it enhances the greenhouse effect. |
| How can using transport contribute to climate change? | Fuel that is petroleum-based produces large amounts of CO₂, contributing to the greenhouse effect. It also releases nitrous oxides which are 250x more powerful than carbon dioxide.
It helps us to get to our destination but it pollutes areas and the fuel has a large cost. |
| How can using energy contribute to climate change? | Burning fossil fuels like coal and oil increase the release of CO₂, enhancing the greenhouse effect.
It provides warmth in homes but it's expensive and destroys the environment. |
| How can deforestation contribute to climate change? | Trees take in carbon dioxide, making them carbon sinks. If trees are cut down, they release all the carbon they have stored into the atmosphere.
Deforestation provides more space for building, and companies gain profit from logging, but it reduces the amount of carbon sinks. |
| Suggest one human cause of climate change. (2 marks) | Burning fossil fuels like coal or oil produce CO₂, enhancing the greenhouse effect. |
| What are ocean currents? | Currents set in motion by prevailing surface winds associated with the general atmospheric circulation. The direction of the water is deflected by the Coriolis force. |
| What are two factors that determine the density of the water? | The temperature and salinity. |
| How can solar output/ sunspots contribute to climate change? | The output of the sun is measured by the number of sunspots there are. They are caused by magnetic activity inside the sun, causing dark spots on the outside.
The more sunspots there are, the warmer because when they explode they turn into solar flares, giving a lot of energy. |
| What were Milutin Milankovitch's Cycles? | He was a Serbian scientist that identified 3 cycles, making the orbital theory (1879). |
| What are five pieces of evidence that show up about past climate change? | Ice cores, sediment cores, tree rings, pollen analysis and temperature records. |
| How do ice cores show us past climate change? | Ice sheets are made up of many layers in Antarctica, and they contain evidence from up to 400,000 years ago.
Scientists can drill into the ice sheets which contain trapped gases from their year. |
| How do sediment cores show us past climate change? | Sediment cores contain organisms and remains of plankton. They tell us surface temperatures and nutrients that were eaten. |
| How do tree rings show us past climate change? | Every year trees form new rings. In warmer and wet conditions, they're thicker. This helps scientists to know the past climate due to the thickness or thinness of the rings. |
| How does pollen analysis show us past climate change? | Pollen in plants gets preserved in sediment at the bottom of bogs or lakes. They can show what species were living at the time and what the conditions were for the pollen, to be compared to present. |
| How do temperature records show us past climate change? | Since the 1850s, global temperatures have been measured by thermometers, but they only show short-term records. Scientists have been able to deconstruct evidence from harvest datas, paintings, newspapers and weather reports. |
| What are the percentages of the gases that make up our atmosphere? | 78% is nitrogen. This is important for plant growth.
21% is oxygen. This is breathed in and out by animals and plants.
1% is water vapour. This forms clouds and is essential for the water cycle.
0.04% is carbon dioxide. It regulates temperature and plants breath it in.
Methane and CFC's are other minority gases. |
| Explain one natural cause for the little ice age. | Eccentricity may be a cause of the little ice age because the orbit became more elliptical. This would cool the Earth since it cant receive the same amount of heat it normally would. This creates a glacial period. |
| What are some advantages of climate change? | - Agriculture and farming can be done more frequently and easily.
- New shipping routes and short cuts have been made due to rising sea levels.
- Energy consumption has decreased since the weather is warmer for longer. |
| What are some disadvantages of climate change? | - Famines due to hot conditions prevent crop growth.
- Droughts due to no rain.
- Increase in floods due to rising sea levels.
- Diseases are spread easier.
- Ice caps and glaciers have been melting, affecting sea levels. |
| Positive effects of climate change outweigh the negative impacts of climate change. Do you agree? (6 marks) | Climate change is the global climate changing abnormally compared to previous years and ages. I think that positive climate change impacts don't outweigh negative impacts because we've been able to live almost problem free without new changes due to climate change.
The benefits of climate change is new aqua trade routes due to rising sea levels, due to melting glaciers and ice caps, and the growth of grapes in Northern Europe and less energy consumption due to warmer weather for longer periods of time.
However, more problems have been created globally. For example, flooding in areas over the world because of the rising sea levels, and famines or droughts due to the hot weather. The lives of people have been affected and are even at risk, whereas these problems weren't as prevalent before climate change, showing that its made society worse. |
| What are tropical storms? | A very powerful, low-pressure weather system, resulting in strong winds. |
| What are tropical storms called in different areas of the world? | In the US and Caribbean, they're called hurricanes.
In South Asia, they're called cyclones.
In East Asia, they're called Typhoons.
In Australia, they're called Willy-willies. |
| How are tropical storms measured in different areas of the world? | Across the Atlantic, the Saffir-Simpson Scale is used.
Across the Pacific, the Meterological Agency's Scale is used.
In Australia, the Tropical Cyclone intensity scale is used.
These all measure how strong the winds are. If they are over 70mph, they are considered storms. |
| What happens to the rotation of storms if they're above the equator? | The prevailing winds cayuse them to rotate east to west above the equator, and west to east underneath it. |
| Describe what most tropical storms are. | The vast majority of tropical storms are around the tropics at 23.5°S and N. The most frequent is at the Southern parts of Northern America, and South-East Asia, near Japan. |
| What are the meterological conditions that influence tropical storms? | - Moisture from the sea.
- Altitudes 5°-30°N and S of the equator.
- Spin from the Coriolis effect.
- A depth of 60-70 m
- A temperature of 26.5°C + |
| How are tropical storms formed? | - Air is heated above war tropical oceans, causing it to rise. This then creates the perfect conditions for weather systems that require LOW PRESSURE areas.
- While the air rises, more air and moisture rises creating STRONG WINDS.
- The Coriolis effect causes the air to SPIN upwards around the eye of the storm, the calm centre. Cold air sinks into the eye of the storm, creating high pressure, which is why its calmer and drier.
- As the air rises and condenses, it forms cumulonimbus clouds that generate torrential rainfall. The HEAT given off powers the storm.
- The tropical storm travels in the direction of the prevailing winds, and when it meets land, it loses its power since its no longer powered by heat or moisture from the ocean and due to obstacles. |
| When and were was Cyclone Alia? | Cyclone Alia hit south-west Bangladesh in 2009, May 25th. |
| What are some social impacts of Cyclone Alia? | - 190 people were killed.
- 750,000 people were made homeless.
- Families were deprived of food due to the death of 59,000 animals.
- 3.5 million people were affected.
- 200,000+ people were still in temporary shelters after 5 months. |
| What are some environmental impacts of Cyclone Alia? | - The Sundarbans, an area of mangrove forests, were flooded, and 30 Royal Bengal Tigers were drowned due to burst mud embankments.
- Freshwater was contaminated with sewage.
- The moist conditions brought mosquitos, including malaria.
- More than 700km of coastal embankments were destroyed. |
| What are some economic imapacts of Cyclone Alia? | - Farmers were losing their jobs due to the loss of animals.
- Many lived in poverty and slums over a year later. |
| What were some problems with Bangladesh's location that can make them heavily impacted to tropical cyclones? | Bangladesh is in the tropics and has a coastal location, making them vulnerable to tropical cyclones.
156 million people are in an area that's 60% the size of the UK, meaning they have a high population density.
Due to climate change, river discharge has been increased due to melting in the Himalayas.
80% of the country is less than 10m above sea level which means it can easily flood.
The widespread of the population - 31& of civilians live on <$2 a day. |
