Try the fastest way to create flashcards

4.4: Climate Change

2.7 (3 reviews)
Get a hint
List greenhouse gases found in the atmosphere.


Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
Click the card to flip 👆
1 / 26
1 / 26

Students also viewed

学中文难不难, 中国的语言
Teacher32 terms
Profile Picture
karai0408
Using Earth's Resources-Human Impact on the Environment
41 terms
Profile Picture
Aidanmx360
Freshwater Glossary (Ashworth class)
Teacher135 terms
Profile Picture
sarahshippey
The subjunctive with verbs of emotion
Teacher19 terms
Profile Picture
Paulo_Serrano9
4.2 - Moi et les autres: aider les autres - le bénévolat- la pauvreté
Teacher39 terms
Profile Picture
MadameDecolint
TEAS chemistry
71 terms
Profile Picture
xoxokeanna
IB biology super review for paper 1 + 2
720 terms
Profile Picture
Alden_Trageser
CHM103- Exam 2 Stoichiometry Notes
24 terms
Profile Picture
llewissfkjfn
Unit 28 AS - Transcription and Gene Expression
Teacher23 terms
Profile Picture
CJ_Woodard7
Vistas Capítulo 13
Teacher63 terms
Profile Picture
Paulo_Serrano9
chemistry naming a element in each family
8 terms
Profile Picture
Connor_Kelley33
biochem exam 2 510
104 terms
Profile Picture
aaabbott2
Terms in this set (26)
List greenhouse gases found in the atmosphere.


Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
A greenhouse gas is a gas that absorbs and emits longwave radiation (heat). Greenhouse gases cause the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone.
Image: *List greenhouse gases found in the atmosphere.* Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
State the sources of CO2 in the atmosphere.


Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
Carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere naturally when organisms respire or decompose, carbonate rocks are weathered, forest fires occur, and volcanoes erupt.

Carbon dioxide is also added to the atmosphere through human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and forests and the production of cement.
Image: *State the sources of CO2 in the atmosphere.* Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
State the sources of water vapor in the atmosphere.


Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
The water in the atmosphere is due to evaporation of water during the water cycle. In the atmosphere, water exists as a gas (water vapor from evaporation), as a liquid (droplets of rain), and as a solid (snow and ice).
Image: *State the sources of water vapor in the atmosphere.* Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
Define "greenhouse effect."


Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
The greenhouse effect is the natural process by which radiation (heat) is trapped by a planet's atmosphere, warming the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere.
Image: *Define "greenhouse effect."* Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
Outline the mechanism by which greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere.


Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
Solar energy absorbed at Earth’s surface is radiated back into the atmosphere as heat.
A layer of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb the heat and radiate it back to the Earth's surface.
Image: *Outline the mechanism by which greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere.* Understanding: Carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most significant greenhouse gases.
State the sources of nitrous oxide gas in the atmosphere.


Understanding: Other gases including methane and nitrogen oxides have less impact.
Human activities such as agriculture, fuel combustion, wastewater management, and industrial processes are increasing the amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) gas in the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is also naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth's nitrogen cycle, and has a variety of natural sources.
Image: *State the sources of nitrous oxide gas in the atmosphere.* Understanding: Other gases including methane and nitrogen oxides have less impact.
State the sources of methane in the atmosphere.


Understanding: Other gases including methane and nitrogen oxides have less impact.
Methane (CH4) is found in very small quantities in the atmosphere but is able to make a big impact on warming. Human activities emitting methane include leaks from natural gas systems and the raising of livestock. Methane is also emitted by natural sources such as natural wetlands and melting permafrost.
Image: *State the sources of methane in the atmosphere.* Understanding: Other gases including methane and nitrogen oxides have less impact.
State two factors that determine the warming impact of a greenhouse gas.


Understanding: The impact of a gas depends on its ability to absorb longwave radiation as well as on its concentration in the atmosphere.
1. Ability to absorb longwave radiation (only certain gases in the atmosphere have the ability to trap long wave radiation and therefore act as a greenhouse gas).

2. Abundance of the gas in the atmosphere (the amount of a particular gas in the atmosphere).
Image: *State two factors that determine the warming impact of a greenhouse gas.* Understanding: The impact of a gas depends on its ability to absorb longwave radiation as well as on its concentration in the atmosphere.
State two variables that determine the concentration of a gas in the atmosphere.


Understanding: The impact of a gas depends on its ability to absorb longwave radiation as well as on its concentration in the atmosphere.
1. Rate of release of the gas into the atmosphere.

2. How long the gas persists in the atmosphere once it is there..
Image: *State two variables that determine the concentration of a gas in the atmosphere.* Understanding: The impact of a gas depends on its ability to absorb longwave radiation as well as on its concentration in the atmosphere.
Compare how long water, methane and CO2 remain in the atmosphere, on average.


Understanding: The impact of a gas depends on its ability to absorb longwave radiation as well as on its concentration in the atmosphere.
There are several processes that remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Most dissolves into the ocean over a period of 20–200 years. The rest is removed by slower processes that take up to hundreds of thousands of years, including chemical weathering and rock formation. This means that once in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide can continue to affect climate for thousands of years.

Methane is mostly removed from the atmosphere by chemical reaction, persisting for about 12 years.

Water vapour has a very short atmospheric lifetime, of the order of hours to days, because it is rapidly removed as rain and snow.
State that the Earth absorbs shortwave energy from the sun and re-emits longer wavelengths.


Understanding: The warmed Earth emits longer wavelength radiation (heat).
Solar energy enters Earth's atmosphere as shortwave radiation in the form of ultraviolet (UV) rays and visible light. Once in the Earth’s atmosphere, clouds and the surface absorb the solar energy. The ground heats up and re-emits energy as longwave radiation in the form of infrared rays.
Image: *State that the Earth absorbs shortwave energy from the sun and re-emits longer wavelengths.* Understanding: The warmed Earth emits longer wavelength radiation (heat).
Compare wavelengths of UV, visible and infrared radiation.


Understanding: The warmed Earth emits longer wavelength radiation (heat).
Electromagnetic energy travels as waves that vary in wavelength. Infrared radiation, what we experience as heat, has a longer wavelength than visible light. Ultraviolet has shorter wavelengths than visible light.
Image: *Compare wavelengths of UV, visible and infrared radiation.* Understanding: The warmed Earth emits longer wavelength radiation (heat).
Explain the greenhouse effect, with reference to shortwave radiation from the sun, longwave radiation from the Earth and the effects of greenhouse gases.


Understanding: Longer wave radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases that retain the heat in the atmosphere.​
When the Sun’s shortwave energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated as longwave radiation from the Earth's surface. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb some of the longwave radiation, which makes the atmosphere and Earth's surface warmer.
Image: *Explain the greenhouse effect, with reference to shortwave radiation from the sun, longwave radiation from the Earth and the effects of greenhouse gases.* Understanding: Longer wave radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases that retain the heat in the atmosphere.​
Explain why water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are greenhouse gases.


Understanding: Longer wave radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases that retain the heat in the atmosphere.​
Water vapor, CO2, methane and N2O are greenhouse gases because they are able to absorb most of the Earth's emitted longwave infrared radiation, which heats the atmosphere.

Other atmospheric gases (such as N2 and O2) do not interact with longwave radiation, and therefore have no consequence for the greenhouse effect.
Image: *Explain why water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are greenhouse gases.* Understanding: Longer wave radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases that retain the heat in the atmosphere.​
Explain why atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration would logically impact global temperatures.


Understanding: Global temperatures and climate patterns are influenced by concentrations of greenhouse gases.​​
The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is directly related to the temperature of the atmosphere. If the concentration of any of the greenhouse gases rises, more longwave radiation (heat) will be captured by the atmosphere leading to an increase in average global temperatures.
Image: *Explain why atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration would logically impact global temperatures.* Understanding: Global temperatures and climate patterns are influenced by concentrations of greenhouse gases.​​