GEO 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cryosphere, Cold Days, Permafrost
Document Summary
Weather: day to day condition of the atmosphere (temp, precipitation, wind) at any given time. Statistical description of temp, precipitation and wind over a given period of time (generally 30 years). (climate in a wider sense is the state of the climate system) Increase in seal level, decrease in ice and snow amounts. Global warming has led to widespread shrinking of cryosphere. # of cold days has gone down and # of warm days and nights have went up. Frequency of heat waves has increased in europe, asia, australia. Intensity of heavy precip. events have gone up (n. america, europe) More than 90% of energy stored in the climate system from ocean temps. Water has high heat capacity and ocean mixes slowly.