GOPH 375 Lecture Notes - Little Ice Age, Vertical Draft, Cenozoic
Document Summary
Weather is short term, climate is long term. Sun heats earth unequally, equator gets 2. 4x more energy than poles (steeper ray angle). Earth"s spin and gravity (pull cold air) even out heat. Earth always has a band of cloud around the equator because it"s hotter there so hot air rises and condenses. Weather (atmospheric circulation) is the earth trying to distribute heat (clouds) around the equator to the poles. Poles snow increases albedo, increases reflection making it colder greenhouse effect counters this, makes it warmer. Incoming sun rays are short wavelengths, outgoing is long wavelengths. 100% energy coming in, variously reflected so only 45% is absorbed into atmosphere, land gets hot and heats air above it. Water has a high heat capacity, oceans hold a lot of energy; released when water changes: evaporation (liquid to gas) condensation (gas to liquid) freezing (liquid to solid) Sublimation (solid to gas) melting (solid to liquid)
