EARTHSS 15- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 40 pages long!)

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Earth System Science
• Course: EARTHSS 15
• Professor: Michael Pritchard

Document Summary

It depe(cid:374)ds o(cid:374) (cid:449)he(cid:396)e (cid:455)ou li(cid:448)e, (cid:455)ou(cid:396) lo(cid:374)gitude, latitude a(cid:374)d altitude. It (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ges (cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455) slo(cid:449)l(cid:455) a(cid:374)d it"s (cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455) predictable. For example: we can predict that phoenix is warmer than fargo for the same reasons that we can predict a warmer future. Day is warmer than night, summer is warmer than winter and phoenix is warmer than fargo. Nearly all of the air is made of oxygen (o2) and nitrogen (n2) in which two atoms of the same element share electrons. Infrared (heat) energy radiated up from the surface can be absorbed by these molecules, but not very well. Carbon dioxide (co2) and water vapor (h2o) are very different. They have many more ways to vibrate and rotate, so they are very good at absorbing and emitting infrared (heat) radiation. The (cid:374)e(cid:454)t figu(cid:396)e p(cid:396)ese(cid:374)ts (cid:862)the g(cid:396)ee(cid:374)house effe(cid:272)t(cid:863): Doubling co2 would add 4 watts to every square meter of the surface of the earth, 24/7.