The Earth has been experiencing a considerable amount of climate change for the last several decades. Natural factors that contribute to the climate system consist of: solar output, volcanic activity and earth’s orbit around the sun. The two factors relevant on timescales of contemporary climate exist in volcanic activity and changes in solar radiation. The earth’s energy balance primarily influences the amount of incoming energy from volcanic eruptions, which have a relatively short-term effect on climate. Changes in solar output have contributed greatly to climate trends over the past century. The effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been at least ten times that of changes in the Sun’s output and the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, receiving twice the amount of earth’s radiation. Although the sun is the engine that drives all the weather, oceans and atmosphere control the sun 's energy along certain
All energy used by living organisms ultimately comes from the sun. energy enters living systems through photosynthesis by plants and some bacteria. (MHHE, N.D)
The human race all around the world wonders if the climate is changing due to human activity or if it is just a natural occurrence. At certain parts of the Earth's surface, the climate can be observed much differently than other locations. As the years go by the average temperature of the Earth increases by little intervals. There are several different reasons why people believe the climate is changing every year. However, the increase of worldwide population and production of heat to the atmosphere is due to the increase of human activities that take place on a daily basis. Human activity is the main cause of the global climate change. The human impact on climate exceeds any known changes due to natural processes. The impact of this human activity is often misunderstood when looking at climate change.
Most of the processes that are critical for our day-to-day lives are driven by energy provided by the Sun. Energy from the Sun warms the planet and keeps the global temperature within a range that allows life to flourish. The energy stored in the food you eat can be traced back to the Sun, through the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy in the process of photosynthesis. You might think that the gasoline that makes your car run or the oil that
Answer: Life on Earth wouldn’t be possible without the sun. It gives us light and warmth. Also, by studying the sun, we can predict weather forecasts. These aided farmers in knowing when they should plant and harvest their crops. The sun’s energy also helps power many electrical appliances on Earth and in space.
Throughout history climates have drastically changed. There have been shifts from warm climates to the Ice Ages (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.204). Evidence suggests there have been at least a dozen abrupt climate changes throughout the history of the earth. There are a few suspected reasons for these past climate changes. One reason may be that asteroids hitting the earth and volcanic eruptions caused some of them. A further assumption is that 22-year solar magnetic cycles and 11-year sunspot cycles played a part in the changes. A further possibility is that a regular shifting in the angle of the moon orbiting earth causing changing tides and atmospheric circulation affects the global climate (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009,
Climate change refers variations in climatic characteristics over a period of time ranging from decades to millions of years. Climate change has had an effect on the average weather conditions and distribution of weather events. Climate change is caused by the increased amount of carbon emissions being emitted into the earth’s atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. The atmosphere traps the emissions and heats up the surface of the Earth therefore altering the Earth’s climate patterns. In the last two centuries the temperature of the Earth’s surface has increased by an average of 0.6 ︒C. Paleoclimatology allows scientists to predict the possible climate scenarios for the future through proxy data. Scientists are able to analysis the severe
Climate change is when the amount of solar energy Earth receives changes due to an alteration to Earth’s
The Milankovitch Mechanisms are central to long-term climate history discourse (Berger, 2013) and incorporate three orbital changes, which are named Precession, Eccentricity and Obliquity. Eccentricity is the first Milankovitch Mechanism, whereby the orbit of the Earth around the sun varies from a nearly perfect circular shape to a more elliptical shape (Figure 1A). At its most elliptical orbit, the Earth passes ~6 million miles (Scofield, n.d) further from the sun at the point of aphelion, and subsequently, the winter climate would be extremely cooler due to the reduction in incoming solar radiation. With Eccentricity, the insolation received can change by ~30% (Maslin and Ridgwell, 2005) and occurs at cycles of ~100,000 years (Maslin and Ridgwell, 2005). Obliquity is the second Milankovitch
Solar radiation also changes over decades and centuries, time scales that are comparable to the human influence on climate.
In the last 100 years, Earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.4°F. The rising global temperatures have caused changes in weather and climate. Global warming refers to the ongoing rise in the average temperature near Earth’s surface. This is causing a climate change, which refers to any significant change (major change in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns) in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time (several decades or longer). Due to this, it is projected that the temperature will rise from 2 to 11.5°F in the next hundred years (US EPA, 2014). The “drivers,” which are the principal causes making this occur, are very controversial. It is debated whether a change in temperature is due to the work of
Over the years there has been a lot of controversy on if climate change is an issue that needs to be discussed and solved. There is a constant debate among scientist on if human actions are contributing the changing of earth’s climates. Climate change is defined as the change in average weather patterns for a specific region or Earth as a whole. This could include the change in an average temperature for a city or the amount a rainfall it receives (Dunbar, 2015). The main difference between weather and climate is the period of time specific patterns are recorded. Weather patterns are looked at over a much shorter period of time, meaning that these patterns are going to be more sporadic and change more frequently. Climate on the other had is recorded over a much longer period of time and usually show less drastic changes in patterns when compared to weather. Some people may argue that climate change is not an issue because Earth’s temperature is always changing do to natural effects. What people don’t realize is that human activity has effected the rate that earth’s temperature is changing, and just the smallest changes can lead to drastic consequences (Dunbar, 2015).
The Earth-atmosphere energy cycle is a structure of coordinating atmospheric components. The Köppen classification system is a simple format for generalizing climate patterns, partitioning the planet into malleable regions by average environmental conditions. Terms to describe the atypical fluctuations in the Earth’s climate include both global warming and climate change. While global warming denotes an average escalation of temperature, climate change suggests a shift in the overall pattern. Climatic zone instabilities, temperature variation, and other deviations that may interrelate with climate are described as global change. The state of global climatic equilibrium can be discerned through focusing on observable imbalances such as positive radiative forcing by atmospheric gasses, temperature fluctuations, weather phenomena and anthropologic influences.
Energy from the sun drives the earth’’s weather and climate, and heats the earth’’s surface; in turn, the earth radiates energy back into space. Atmospheric greenhouse gases (water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases) trap some of the
Scientists have discovered 'climate forcing’s ' influence variations in climate systems and based on the depth and period of such forcing’s the adjustments to climate may be in a shorter or longer earth cycle. Natural forcing’s like variations in earth 's orbit, solar variation, volcanic eruptions and motion of tectonic plates have influence on the Earth 's climate