hazardous earth- climate change

• what are orbital changes?

  Milankovitch cycles change how the earth orbits the sun and happen every 100,000 years. The earth's orbit changes from circular to elliptical changing the amount of solar energy the earth's surface receives.
• What is solar output?

  Sunspots are darker areas on the sun's surface with a greater amount of solar energy. They come and go every 11 years. The more sunspots, the higher the earth's temperature.
• What is volcanic activity?

  Major volcanic events lead to reduced temperatures as the volcano erupts large amounts of ash into the atmosphere. This blocks out solar radiation and reduces the amount of sun energy.
• What are asteroid collisions?

  They can lead to small periods of cooling due to ash/dust particles released into the atmosphere following the collisions at the earth's surface.
• What evidence is there of natural climate change?

  Tree rings show that growth rings are wider when there are warmer, wetter conditions.

  Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica indicate the levels of $CO^2$from when the ice was formed.
• what are a few examples of greenhouse gases?

  methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide
• what do greenhouse gases do?

  They retain heat from the sun and is absorbed by the earth to keep the earth's temperature warm enough to support life.
• How are human activities causing climate change?

  90% of journeys use transport that burns oil.

  the manufacturing industry uses energy and produces waste.

  Using fertilisers, jet engines and sewage farms (nitrous oxide)

  Grazing cows (methane)

  Deforestation (increase in co)
• What are the possible consequences of climate change?

  RIsing sea levels.

  melting ice caps and glaciers can unlock greenhouse gases.
• The atmosphere is constantly moving-transferring heart around the earth ina global circulation system. there are three types of circulation cells that make up this circulation pattern.
• The earth receives its energy from the sun which passes through the atmosphere and heats the ground directly. This warms the air and transfers heat into the atmosphere, creating low pressure. It then cools and travels north and south where it sinks back towards the earth. Rising air cannot hold as much moisture that's why there is more precipitation on the equator. As the cooler, drier air sinks, it creates high pressure, clear skies, little precipitation and air conditions.
• The earth receives the most radiation on the equator where it is the hottest compared to the poles where is it the coldest. The equator receives the most radiation because the sun's rays hit the surface at a right angle. At the poles, the angle is much lower which means they have to heat a much larger area.
• Winds are caused when air moves from high pressure to low pressure but because the earth rotates as the air moves above the surface, the earth rotates below it and the winds follow a curved path. This is called the Coriolis effect.
• In the northern hemisphere, the winds are deflected to the right and in the southern hemisphere to the left. Jet streams also impact air movement and they are mainly on the boundaries of the main circulation cells changing the weather for different places.
• Oceanic currents also transfer heat around the earth. Surface ocean currents are driven by the movement of air across them, whereas deep ocean currents are determined by colder, salty water near the Arctic and antarctic sinking pulling warmer water into them from lower latitudes.
• Jet Streams

  Fast-moving streams of air in the upper atmosphere that affect air movement and weather patterns, typically found on the boundaries of main circulation cells.
• Coriolis Effect

  The apparent deflection of moving objects on Earth's surface due to the rotation of the planet, causing winds to be deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.
• Main Circulation Cells


  Large-scale circulation patterns in the atmosphere that Jet Streams are often found on the boundaries of, influencing weather patterns.