Weather and Climate Basics
Whats is weather?
The short-term conditions of the atmosphere, such as today's temperature and precipitation.
What is the greenhouse effect?
This physical process is where certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat, preventing it from escaping into space.
This describes how far a location is from the Equator, where locations farther away get less direct sunlight.
What is latitude?
Industrialization and pollution are two examples of these causes of climate change.
What are human causes?
Clouds, the atmosphere, and Earth's surface (land and oceans) all do both of these things to the Sun's energy, but in different percentages.
What is absorb and reflect?
What is climate?
The long-term weather patterns of a region over a period of at least 30 years.
What comes from burning wood or gas and is the main greenhouse gas?
What is carbon dioxide?
The air temperature drops about how many °C for each kilometer you climb.
What is 6.5 °C?
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. What effect did this have on the climate, and for how long?
The effect was a measurable cooling of the Earth's surface for a period of almost two years.
When ice melts, more ocean is exposed, which absorbs more radiation and causes this.
What is an increase in temperature?
Besides sea and ocean levels and permafrost changes, this environmental condition's decreasing thickness and duration are observed to track climate change.
What is sea ice?
This greenhouse gas comes from cows and rotting trash.
What is methane?
Areas near large bodies of water stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer because...
Water takes longer to heat up and cool down than air.
This land-use practice, alongside burning fossil fuels, reduces Earth's natural capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, intensifying global warming.
What is deforestation?
Term for the ways and how much energy is used and transferred on Earth by being absorbed, reflected, or radiated.
What is the energy budget?
This comfortable average global temperature, measured in degrees Celsius, is maintained by the greenhouse effect, allowing life to survive.
What is 15°C (or 59°F)?
This phenomenon occurs when a city experiences much warmer temperatures than nearby rural areas because structures like roads and buildings retain heat.
What is the urban heat island effect?
What percentage of the Sun's energy is absorbed by Earth's oceans?
What is approximately 90%?
Besides volcanic eruptions and changes in the Sun’s output, these two astronomical phenomena are natural causes of climate change.
What are meteors and changes in orbits?
This is the biological process—impacted by climate change—where species are forced to shift their geographical ranges or breeding times, disrupting entire food webs.
What are migration patterns?