1)Using a spectrometer environmental scientists can tell
-how the air pressure in the atmosphere changes.
-how temperature affects weather.
-what kinds of gases are in the atmosphere.
-what kinds of pollutants are in water.
2)“It turns out that the atmosphere, the air, really can’t hold that much heat,” explains Josh Willis, an oceanographer with the California Institute of Technology working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Heat capacity is the amount of energy that must be put into something to change its temperature, and air has a very low heat capacity. “If you put energy into the ocean, on the other hand, its temperature changes only very slightly.”
One reason the ocean heats more slowly than the atmosphere is the difference in their total mass. “The atmosphere only weighs a tiny fraction of what the ocean weighs,” Willis explains. “But there’s also a sort of intrinsic property of the air that makes it not quite as good at holding heat as the ocean. That property is called the specific heat. You probably have a feel for this if you’ve ever tried to boil a pot of water. You have to burn a lot of gas or wood to heat up the water. But if you had a similar quantity of air, it would take a lot less energy to heat it up to the same temperature. The water’s heavier, and it has a higher specific heat, and both of those things give it a much bigger heat capacity.”
What does this mean for planet Earth in terms of excess energy retained in the earth system?
-Oceans become much cooler, threatening marine animal species and the microscopic algae that produce most of the oxygen we breathe.
-Oceans become much warmer, threatening the world's food web and the microscopic algae that produce most of the oxygen we breathe.
-Oceans become much warmer, threatening marine animal species, and expanding and melting the polar ice caps.
-Oceans become much cooler, threatening marine animal species and cause world temperatures to get much cooler as well.
3)A trip backward in time might take us to an Early Earth with
-intense volcanic activity producing huge amounts of free hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen gases.
-a thick atmosphere containing toxic gases spewed from earth’s inner layers.
-a flat surface with frequent asteroid impacts.
-intense volcanic activity, lush plant growth and large reptiles.
-how the air pressure in the atmosphere changes.
-how temperature affects weather.
-what kinds of gases are in the atmosphere.
-what kinds of pollutants are in water.
2)“It turns out that the atmosphere, the air, really can’t hold that much heat,” explains Josh Willis, an oceanographer with the California Institute of Technology working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Heat capacity is the amount of energy that must be put into something to change its temperature, and air has a very low heat capacity. “If you put energy into the ocean, on the other hand, its temperature changes only very slightly.”
One reason the ocean heats more slowly than the atmosphere is the difference in their total mass. “The atmosphere only weighs a tiny fraction of what the ocean weighs,” Willis explains. “But there’s also a sort of intrinsic property of the air that makes it not quite as good at holding heat as the ocean. That property is called the specific heat. You probably have a feel for this if you’ve ever tried to boil a pot of water. You have to burn a lot of gas or wood to heat up the water. But if you had a similar quantity of air, it would take a lot less energy to heat it up to the same temperature. The water’s heavier, and it has a higher specific heat, and both of those things give it a much bigger heat capacity.”
What does this mean for planet Earth in terms of excess energy retained in the earth system?
-Oceans become much cooler, threatening marine animal species and the microscopic algae that produce most of the oxygen we breathe.
-Oceans become much warmer, threatening the world's food web and the microscopic algae that produce most of the oxygen we breathe.
-Oceans become much warmer, threatening marine animal species, and expanding and melting the polar ice caps.
-Oceans become much cooler, threatening marine animal species and cause world temperatures to get much cooler as well.
3)A trip backward in time might take us to an Early Earth with
-intense volcanic activity producing huge amounts of free hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen gases.
-a thick atmosphere containing toxic gases spewed from earth’s inner layers.
-a flat surface with frequent asteroid impacts.
-intense volcanic activity, lush plant growth and large reptiles.