APES Notes - Chapter 20: The Atmosphere: Climate, Climate Change, and Ozone Depletion
APES Notes - Chapter 20: The Atmosphere: Climate, Climate Change, and Ozone Depletion
APES Notes - Chapter 20: The Atmosphere: Climate, Climate Change, and Ozone Depletion
B. This layer contains practically all of the water vapor and clouds in the
atmosphere; it is the site and source of our weather.
D. Air masses in this layer are well mixed vertically, so pollutants can
reach the top within a few days. Substances entering the troposphere
may be changed chemically and washed back to Earth’s surface by
precipitation.
II. Above the tropopause is the stratosphere, a layer within which temperature
increases with altitude, up to about 40 miles above the surface of the
Earth.
C. Beyond the stratosphere are two more layers, the mesosphere and the
thermosphere, where the ozone concentration declines and only small
amounts of oxygen and nitrogen are found.
Weather
I. The day-to-day variations in temperature, air pressure, wind, humidity, and
precipitation constitute our weather. Climate is the result of long-term
weather patterns in a region.
A. Solar radiation enters the atmosphere and then takes a number of
possible courses. Some of it is reflected by clouds and Earth’s surface,
but most is absorbed by the atmosphere, oceans, and land, which are
heated in the process. The land and oceans then radiate some of their
heat back upward as infrared energy.
II. Some of the heat that is radiated back is transferred to the atmosphere.
Thus, air masses will grow warmer at the surface of Earth and will tend to
expand, becoming lighter. The lighter air will then rise, creating vertical
air currents.
A. On a large scale, this movement creates major convection currents. Air
must flow in to replace the rising warm air, and the inflow leads to
horizontal air-flows, or wind. The ultimate source of the horizontal flow
is cooler air that is sinking, and the combination produces Hadley cells.
These major flows of air create regions of high rainfall, deserts, and
horizontal winds.
III. Convection currents bring us the day-to-day changes in our weather as they
move in a general pattern from west to east.
A. Rising air creates high pressure up in the atmosphere, leaving behind a
region of lower pressure close to Earth. Once the moist, high-pressure
air has cooled by radiating heat to space and losing heat through
condensation, the air then flows horizontally toward regions of sinking
cool, dry air. There, the air is warmed at the surface and creates a
region of higher pressure. The difference in pressure leads to airflows,
which are the winds we experience. Winds tend to flow from high-
pressure regions towards low-pressure regions.
IV. The larger scale air movements of Hadley cells are influenced by Earth’s
rotation from west to east. This creates the trade winds over the oceans
and the general flow of weather from west to east.
A. Higher in the troposphere, Earth’s rotation and air-pressure gradients
generate veritable rivers of air, called jet streams, that flow eastward
at speeds of more than 300mph and that meander considerably. Jet
streams are able to steer major air masses in the lower troposphere.
V. Air masses of different temperatures and pressures meet at boundaries
called fronts, which are regions of rapid weather change.
A. Other movements of air masses due to differences in pressure and
temperature include hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes. There are
also major seasonal airflows—monsoons—that often represent a
reversal of previous wind patterns. Monsoons are created by major
differences in cooling and heating between oceans and continents.
Climate
I. Climate is the average temperature and precipitation expected throughout a
typical year in a given region.
Climates in the Past
I. Earth’s climate has oscillated between ice ages and warm periods. The most
likely explanation for these major oscillations is the existence of known
variations in Earth’s orbit, such that, in different modes of orbital
configuration, the distribution of solar radiation over different continents
and latitudes varies substantially. These oscillations take place according
to several periodic time intervals, called Milankovitch cycles.
A. Superimposed on the major oscillations is a record of rapid climatic
fluctuations during periods of glaciation and warmer times.
Ocean and Atmosphere
I. The oceans are the major source of water for the hydrologic cycle and the
main source of heat entering the atmosphere. The evaporation of ocean
water supplies the atmosphere with water vapor, and when water vapor
condenses in the atmosphere, it supplies the atmosphere with heat.
A. The oceans play an important role in climate change because of their
innate heat capacity. Oceans also convey heat throughout the globe.
II. El Nino occurs when a major shift in atmospheric pressure over the central
equatorial Pacific Ocean leads to a reversal of trade winds that normally
blow from an easterly direction. Warm water spreads to the east, the jet
streams strengthen and shift from their normal courses, patterns in
precipitation and evaporation are affected.
A. La Nina conditions are just the reverse—the easterly trade winds are
reestablished with even greater intensity, upwelling of colder ocean
water in the eastern Pacific from the depths replaces the surface water
blown westward, the jet streams are weakened, and weather patterns
are again affected.
III. A thermohaline circulation pattern dominates oceanic currents, where
thermohaline refers to the effects that temperature and salinity have on
the density of seawater. This conveyor system acts as a giant, complex
conveyor belt, moving water masses from the surface to deep oceans and
back again, according to the density of the mass.
A. A key area is the high-latitude North Atlantic, where salty water from
the Gulf Stream moves northward on the surface and is cooled by
Arctic air currents. Cooling increases the density of the water, which
then sinks and spreads southward to the southern tip of Africa, where
it is joined by cold Antarctic waters. Together, the two streams spread
northward into the Indian and Pacific oceans as deep currents.
Gradually, the currents slow down and warm, becoming less dense and
welling up to the surface, where they are further warmed and begin to
move surface waters back again toward the North Atlantic. This
movement transfers enormous amounts of heat toward Europe.
B. Recent evidence suggests that the conveyor system has been
interrupted in the past, changing climate abruptly. One mechanism
that could accomplish such a change is the appearance of unusually
large amounts of fresh water in the North Atlantic, lowering the density
of the water and therefore preventing much of the massive sinking
that normally occurs there and blocking the northward movement of
warmer, saltier water.
C. North Atlantic marine sediments show evidence of the periodic
invasion of icebergs from the polar ice cap that supplied huge amounts
of fresh water as they melted—Heinrich events. These invasions
coincided with rapid cooling and suggests that the conveyor system
shifted southward. When this shift occurred, a major cooling of the
climate took place within a few decades.
IV. One of the likely consequences of extended global warming is increased
precipitation over the North Atlantic and more melting of sea and ice caps.
If such a pattern is sustained, it could lead to a weakening in the normal
operation of the conveyor ad a change in climate, especially in the
northern latitudes.