MEA 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Milankovitch Cycles, Eugenius Warming, Kyoto Protocol
30 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Climate long term atmospheric conditions in a region. Cryosphere - polar ice-caps, sea-ice, permafrost, seasonal snow cover, mountain glaciers. Climate system exchanges of energy and moisture between these spheres. Global warming refers to the rise in average surface temp. Climate change refers to all changing factors of earth"s climate including temperature, rain, wind, and humidity. Temperature is not the only thing that is changing and it is not just getting hotter. Little evidence to link solar activity with climate change. The milankovitch theory is an explanation of long term climate change. Theorized that variations in earth orbit (e), axial tilt (t), and precession of the earth"s orbit (p) determined climatic patterns on earth through orbital forcing. Changes the latitudinal and seasonal distributions of solar radiation. Need many eruptions in short time period. Climate change would be very gradual over millions of years. More likely result of human activity than natural causes.
