Download Dec 8 intro to climate and spheres

December 08, 2010
Unit 4 Earth and Space Science:
Climate Change
Overall Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
• analyse some of the effects of climate change around the world, and assess the effectiveness of
initiatives that attempt to address the issue of climate change;
• investigate various natural and human factors that influence Earth’s climate and climate change;
• demonstrate an understanding of natural and human factors, including the greenhouse effect,
that influence Earth’s climate and contribute to climate change.
Weather versus Climate
The difference between weather and climate is a measure of________. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of _________, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa­n/climate/climate_weather.html
________.
Climatologist is somebody who studies climate
Meteorologist is somebody who studies weather
Spheres of the Earth
All the parts of the Earth can be divided into distinct spheres with unique characteristics. Each sphere's characteristics play a unique role in the development of our weather and climate.
Using the work bank below, fill in the correct definition for each of the following spheres of the earth.
rock
Lithosphere The ____________________ ("________ sphere") is the ground you are standing on and the whole inside of Earth.
Hydrosphere
water
The __________________ ("________ sphere") includes all of the rivers, lakes and oceans of Earth.
Cryosphere
The __________________ ("icy cold sphere") is the frozen part of Earth: the glaciers, icebergs at sea, and the huge icecaps in Greenland and Antarctica.
Biosphere
living
The_______________ ("_________ sphere") includes all living things: the trees in the park, the birds in the air, the fly on your wall, the viruses that make you sick, your pets, and even you and all your friends!
The ________________ ("Air Sphere") is the envelope of air that surrounds the Atmosphere
whole Earth. It 1
December 08, 2010
The Main Energy Source for our Planet
The _________ is the main energy source for our planet. Its energy travels through space in three forms of __________________________ _____________.
The three types are ___________________ ____________________ and ________________________. This energy interacts first with our atmosphere before it interacts with the lithosphere and the hydrosphere. All the energy is eventually re­emitted as _____________________ radiation and interacts with our atmosphere for a second time.
The Layers of the Atmosphere
http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/lws_gems/3/layers.htm
The atmosphere is divided into 4 regions based on the temperature, density, composition, and altitude
The Different Levels of the Atmosphere are:
Troposphere: This is the lowest atmospheric layer and is about 11 km thick. Most clouds and weather are found in the troposphere. The troposphere is thinner at the poles (averaging about 8km thick) and thicker at the equator (averaging about 16km thick). The temperature decreases with altitude.
Stratosphere: The stratosphere is found from about 11­48 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. In this region of the atmosphere is the ozone layer, which absorbs most of the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. The temperature increases slightly with altitude in the stratosphere. The highest temperature in this region is about 0 degrees Celsius.
Mesosphere: The mesosphere is above the stratosphere. Here the atmosphere is very rarefied, that is, thin, and the temperature is decreasing with altitude, about ­90 Celsius at the top.
Thermosphere: The thermosphere starts at about 55 kilometers. The temperature is quite hot; here temperature is not measured using a thermometer, but by looking at the motion and speed of the rarefied gases in this region, which are very energetic but would not affect a thermometer. Temperatures in this region may be as high as thousands of degrees.
Homework
1. Draw images to represent the 4 spheres ­ biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere.
2. Look up the term rarefied and determine whether you would find the thermosphere warm if you were in a space station orbiting the planet.
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