CHAPTER11 REVIEW PROJECT

Daniel Jung Alex Kim Michael Ondiz

Science 10 / 3

CONTENTS

Earth’s Atmosphere

El Nino & La Nina

EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

What is Natural Greenhouse Effect? the absorption of thermal energy by the

atmosphere, which keeps Earth’s temperature within a certain range.

What are the greenhouse gases? the Greenhouse gases in the Earth's

atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

HOW GREENHOUSE EFFECT INFLUECES CLIMATE

The excess build up of gases which retain heat in the atmosphere, by absorbing the reflected heat from the surface and redistributing it to the air. Because more heat than usual is being kept in the atmosphere, it gets warmer - in the same way a greenhouse does. and if it gets warmer humans can not live on earth.

The greenhouse effect warms the Earth and that could change rainfall and weather patterns, and the temperature increase will have a dramatic affect on many different animals, especially those that thrive and require very cold, or very hot climates. Ice will melt, sea levels will rise. Winters will become shorter, but harsher. Summers will become increasingly hotter. Hurricanes and tornadoes will become gradually stronger and more common, and their range will become larger.

El Niño

ContentsDefinition about El Niño

How El Niño influences climate

How El Niño influences climate El Nino, which affects wind and rainfall

patterns, has been blamed for droughts and floods in countries around the Pacific Rim.  El Nino refers to the irregular warming of surface water in the Pacific.  The warmer water pumps energy and moisture into the atmosphere, altering global wind and rainfall patterns.   The phenomenon has caused tornadoes in Florida, smog in Indonesia, and forest fires in Brazil.

 

El Niño Definition

A warming of the surface water of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, occurring every 4 to 12 years and causing unusual global weather patterns. An El Niño is said to occur when the trade winds that usually push warm surface water westward weaken, allowing the warm water to pool as far eastward as the western coast of South America. When this happens, the typical pattern of coastal upwelling that carries nutrients from the cold depths to the ocean surface is disrupted, and fish and plankton die off in large numbers. El Niño warming is associated with the atmospheric phenomenon known as the southern oscillation, and their combined effect brings heavy rain to western South American and drought to eastern Australia and Indonesia. El Niño also affects the weather in the United States, but not as predictably.

Contents-Effects of Niña -Recent occurrences

La Niña

La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of El Niño as part of the broader El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern.

La Niña

La Niña causes mostly the opposite effects of El Niño, for example, El Niño would cause a wet period in the Midwestern U.S., while La Niña would typically cause a dry period in this area.

Effects of La Niña

There was a strong La Niña episode during 1988-1989. La Niña also formed in 1995, and in 1999-2000. A minor La Niña occurred 2000-2001.

Recent occurrences

Ida now a coastal low assaulting the Mid-Atlantic

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the low's cloud top temperatures. The colder the temperature, the higher the thunderstorms, and the stronger they are (with heavier rainfall). NASA AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) imagery

on Nov. 11 at 1:30 p.m. ET shows the cold clouds raining over eastern Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware. Cloud tops were as cold as -27F (in blue), not as cold and high as seen in powerful hurricanes, but still with the ability to create moderate rainfall. AIRS is an instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite.