The greenhouse effect is a condition that occurs when the Earth's atmosphere captures radiation from the Sun. Solar heat is trapped by certain gases (including carbon dioxide and methane). These gases allow sunlight in but not back out of the atmosphere. This effect can be seen on a small scale when a car parked in the sun with its windows closed heats up. Global warming is the relatively gradual increase in Earth's surface temperature that results from human activity. It has been set in motion by the greenhouse effect but is more complicated because there are feedback effects involved in climate change that magnify the initial effect of the build-up of gases such as carbon dioxide.
Global warming has the capacity -- indeed, probably the inevitable capacity -- of transforming nearly every aspect of our lives, and in most ways for the worse (Solomon etal, 2009, p. 1706).
Question Four
The pressure gradient force is the acceleration of air that occurs due to pressure differences in the atmosphere. In general, air moves from a region of high atmospheric pressure to one of low. This movement produces wind. Frictional force is the resistance or force that is produced when the surfaces of two objects come into contact with each other.
The Coriolis effect is the effect of the fact that the Earth's rotation deflects air. Since the Earth spins to the east, objects in the Northern Hemisphere tend to veer slightly right and those in the Southern Hemisphere veer to the left. This is what causes the absence of both northerly and southerly winds in both the polar regions and the tropics. Trade winds are also determined by the Coriolis force...
113).
Question Five
The Mediterranean
climate found along the coast of
Southern California is defined by a low level of rain and low rates of humidity. This results from the fact that during the summer there are high-pressure belts that move from the subtropics to the Northern Hemisphere and then shift to the south in the fall and winter. This results in a dry climate.
The substantial differences between the climate in the Eastern and Western United States arises primarily from the existence of the two major mountain ranges -- the Sierra Nevadas and the Rockies -- that block winds that determine Western climate from reaching the Eastern side of the country.
The presence of north-south mountain ranges in the United States ensures that the West Coast is primarily determined by conditions in the Pacific and that the East Coast climate is primarily determined by conditions in the Atlantic. The periodic El Nino and La Nina winds exacerbate this effect (Glantz, 2003).
References
Brock, Claire (2007). The comet sweeper: Caroline Herschel's astronomical ambition.
London: Icon Books Ltd.
Glantz, M, H. (2001). Currents of change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harvey, F. (1997 February). From
holistic geography to GIS. The professional geographer
49(1): 77-85.
Solomon, S. etal. (2009). Irreversibke climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(6): 1704 -- 1709
Barry, R. & Chorley, R. (2003). Atmosphere, climate and weather. New York: Routledge.
