NATS 101 Introduction to Global Change, Section 16
Reading focus questions

Use these questions to guide your reading of assigned materials and prepare for quizzes.
Week of 8/28/2007: Questions to consider as you read Kump et al., The Earth System, Ch. 3:
  1. What temperature, measured in degrees Fahrenheit, is 22 degrees Celsius?
  2. How is visible light different from infrared light?  
  3. What is a radiation flux?  Which is greater, the solar flux at Earth's surface, or the radiative flux from a 20W light bulb shining all of its light on a 10cm x 10cm surface?
  4. What is a "greenhouse gas"?  What distinguishes a greenhouse gas from a "non-greenhouse gas"?  Which of the major constituents of Earth's atmosphere today are also important greenhouse gases?
  5. What defines the part of the atmosphere we call the troposphere?
  6. What is a feedback, and why is a positive feedback loop considered an unstable system?
Week of 9/11/2007: Questions to consider as you read Kump et al., The Earth System, Ch. 4, and Haag, Stormy Weather Ahead:
  1. Give two reasons why, over the course of the year, the tropics receive a net surplus of energy (incoming solar - outgoing terrestrial), while the extratropics receive a net deficit of energy.
  2. What is the Coriolis Effect?  When viewed from the surface of a rotating planet, how does it appear to deflect air masses moving away from the equator, northward over the surface of the planet?
  3. What is geostrophic balance?  In what direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) do winds rotate about the center of a low pressure center storm south of the equator?
  4. Why do subtropical regions like Tucson tend to be dry, while tropical regions tend to be wet?
  5. For what reasons might the number and strength of tropical cyclones over the past century be increasing?  Are all of these reasons due to climate change?

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