climate worksheet- universityof north carolinaat chapel hill（气候表大学教堂山的北carolinaat）.docVIP

Climate Worksheet Good resources : /climatechange/ www.ipcc.ch Weve all been hearing a lot about climate change recently. Im willing to bet that few people have actually seen the data or know much about how it all happens. So, this is what this worksheet is all about. Politicians are bringing climate change into the public eye. There is much debate over climate change, and what is actually happening. Ill present some actual data and give you the facts, so you can decide for yourselves if you think climate change is an immediate threat in the world. The climate changes on a periodic basis without human influence, and has been doing so for millions of years. The longest cycles are Milankovitch Cycles, where based on the geometry of rotation of the Earth, the global temperature will rise and fall. This is a figure illustrating the various changes in rotation of the Earth, which in turn affect the growth and decay of ice sheets. These cycles (eccentricity, obliquity, and precession) act on Kyr (thousands of years) timescales. As a brief overview, eccentricity refers to changes in the Earths orbit (whether it is more round, or more elliptical). Obliquity is changes in the tilt of the Earth on its axis (currently, we are tilted 23.5°), and Precession refers to the wobble of the Earth about the axis. 1. What are the periodicities of each cycle? Eccentricity 100,000years Obliquity 41,000 years Precession 21,000 years This long-term climate variability of Milankovitch cycles are recorded in sediments and in ice cores. The best way to observe the changes are with microscopic fossils and by using oxygen isotopes. Oxygen has two prominent isotopes: 16O and 18O. The 16O is easier to evaporate, since it weighs less - it is the lighter isotope, since the nucleus contains less neutrons. Since 16O evaporates easier, if the global temperatures are cold, this 16O will precipitate in the form of snow onto glaciers and c