Reference no: EM13289427

Part -1 :

1. Why is it said that the troposphere is unstable, and the stratosphere stable?

2. Why do temperatures in the troposphere decrease upward?

3.(a) Why do temperatures in the stratosphere increase upward?

(b) What does this temperature gradient have to do with the stability of the stratosphere?

4.Total precipitation over Earth's surface is 496,000 cubic kilometers of water per year. The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is 13,000 cubic kilometers. If there were no replenishment of water vapor in the atmosphere, how long would it take to remove all the water from the atmosphere?

7.Why is the long-wave, infrared radiation that is reradiated from Earth's surface so important to climate?

10.Earth's winds are zonal in that in general they tend to blow along latitudinal lines around the planet. The major wind belts are the polar easterlies, westerlies, trade winds, and equatorial easterlies in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The winds drive the surface currents of the ocean. Cool air that has descended at mid-latitudes moves toward the equator as the northeast and southeast trade winds in the Northern and SouthernHemispheres, respectively. These winds exert a force on the sea surface, and currents are generated that flow toward the equator. Both the winds of the atmosphere and the surface currents of the ocean converge near the equator. The warm equatorial air rises and moves north and south toward the poles. The converging ocean currents generate westward-flowing equatorial currents.

(a) Based on this, would you expect a pollutant gas like carbon monoxide with major anthropogenic sources in the Northern Hemisphere and a short atmospheric residence time to be evenly distributed in the troposphere? Explain.

(b) Is there an equatorial barrier to the dispersal of floating tar balls produced in the petroleum tanker shipping lanes of the North Atlantic by accidental and deliberate spillage of oil?

(c) Does such a barrier exist for the deep waters of the ocean?

Part -2:

1. Discuss briefly the pattern of the trade winds, their origin, and their relationship to ocean currents.

6. The concentration of dissolved potassium (K) in the ocean is 390 mg/kg. The atomic weight of potassium is 39.

(a) What is the concentration of K+ in seawater in moles kg^-1?

(b) What is its concentration in parts per million by volume of seawater?

8. One source of the deep water of the world's oceans is in the Norwegian Sea. Here, water is sufficiently dense to sink to the bottom. This water mainly forms from the cooling by evaporation of water carried northward by the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream carries heat to the high latitudes of the North Atlantic Ocean, which helps to moderate the climate of Europe. There is consider- able interest in the rate of formation of North Atlantic Deep Water because of the role it plays in climate. Possible changes in the rate of its formation have been cited as the cause of rapid climate change in the past. Any global warming could modify the rate of deep- water formation.

(a) How would you expect the residence time of the deep water to change from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean?

(b) How does the deep water return to the surface?

(c) If the continental glaciers were to begin melting because of a global warming, what would you expect might happen to the rate of deep-water formation and the climate of Europe?