What is upwelling and when and where does it occur?
Upwelling happens when deep nutrient rich seawater is brought up to the surface.
Happens at divergence, when water moves away from each other or from land.
Well known upwelling is at the west coast of southamerica, in the pacific. Other west coast such as west Africa.
What is the Ekman transport?
Ekman transport: the surface water flows around 20 - 45 degrees to the right or south depending on which hemisphere.
However the net transport of water is 90 degrees to the direction and towards the right on the northern hemisphere.
This causes the piling of water in the center of the gyre
What is geostrophic flow?
Ekman transport piles water up in the midde of the gyre.
The gyres piles up water, this causes a pressure gradient directed outward from the “hill”.
Since the pressure gradient force is weak the coriolis effect deflets the water to the right on the northern hemisphere.
What is corilois effect, where is it zero? When does it increase?
Coriolis effect is not a force, but something that occurs since the earth is spinning around its axis.
At the equator the speed is as highest. Objects that move from the equator will have higher speed than north up.
Coriolis is zero at the equator and increases with latitude.
It increases as the speed of the objects increase.
Defelcted to the right on the northern hemisphere and to the left on southern hemisphere.
What is vorticity? And how does it affects the gyres?
The water needs to have a constant vorticity(flow), the flow is slowed down along the coasts due to friction.
On the west side the water needs to move fast back to the north (due to coriolis) this results in a fast intense flow.
On the east side of the bassin, the flow is slower and the stream is broader, Coriolis is less.
Explain what effects the ocean has on modifying the global temperature distribution?
Warm surface water moves toward the poles to replace cold bottom water that forms near the sea ice margin, one example on when solar energy is transferred.
The oceans heat capacity.
What is the thermohaline circulation?
Also called the global conveyor belt. Where the suface water becomes cold and salty enough it sinks.
Will the sea’s become saltier and saltier?
No,
Evaporite forms in shallow seas.
Biological processes, shells.
Chemical reactions between seawater and newly formed volcanic rocks on the sea floor.
The formation of seaspray.
Describe the feedbackfactor
f= temperature change with feedback/temperature change without feedback
If f is between 0 and 1, it is a negative feedbackloop
If f is greater than 1, it is a positive feedbackloop.
We can only calculate the feedback factor on a stable equilibrium.
Why is CO2 such an effective greenhouse gas?
Since it absorbes radiation on 15 µm wavelength. This wavelength is the infrared wavelength that peaks from the enery emitted by earth.
What is a one dimensional climate model? and what is it called?
RMC - radiative convective model
Climate system is calculated by averaging the incomming solar energy and the outgoing IR radiation over Earth’s entire surface.
What is three dimensional climate model and what is it called?
GCM - General Circulation model
Vertical dimension - altitude, divided into a number of layers. Energy is calculated from each layer with convection latent heat an so on taken into account.
Includes, wind, streams and whaether.
What is the major contributor to Earths albedo?
Clouds
List the four layers of the Earths atmosphere
Troposphere - Convection, warmer at the ground.
Stratosphere - Goes toward warmer due to ozon
Mesosphere - Goes towards colder, due to ozon decline
Termosphere - Goes towards warmer
