Earth 2

Thursday, February 11th, 1999
Announcements: Test is on Tuesday!!!

Lecture notes:

CRYOSPHERE

• The cryosphere consists of the vast amount of seawater on earth
• 98% Seawater
• 2% Frozen

SNOW

• The snow cover has the mopst rapid response time
• It has an albedo greater than .80
• This is the ice-albedo feedback:

• Snow Accumulation-->Transformations... SNOW-->AIR.LOSS-->ICE-->FABRIC-->DEFORM-->FLOW
• Air is lost in between grains of snow, creating a firn
• Snow becomes a group of equi-anuglar crystals

ICE SHEET

• The ice cap is actually flowing, deforming, and flowing toward the ocean

• Ice Sheets 1)Record climate change 2)Show sea level rise/decline

PERMAFROST

• Permafrost consists of permanantly frozen soil
• Contains lots of methane

SEA

• Temperature cools-->denser, lighter water as it nears freezing point
• Ocean doesn't reach this lightening point until it's a little cooler than freezing
• Less dense water on top of the ocean is what cretaes sea ice
• Sea ice only covers 10% of the oceans in the Northern Hemisphere
• Sea ice is highly reflective

LEADS

• NO LEADS-->Ice is an insulator, has no moisture, and creates few clouds
• LEADS-->Much heat loss, much evaporation, and creates many clouds

TEST OVERVIEW

4-5 Definitions

5-7 What's the significance of...

10-12 Fill-in the Blanks

6-10 Short Answer Questions

1 Discussion Question