16.2. Earth-System Change – Vocabulary
Section 16.0 Introduction
- Earth system
- glaciation
- climate system
- global temperature
- mean global temperature
- temperature fluctuation
- Snowball Earth
- climate change
- anthropogenic
Section 16.1 What is the Earth system
- atmosphere
- hydrosphere
- biosphere
- lithosphere
- water cycle
- carbon cycle
- Earth-system
- ice cap
- albedo
- habitat
- precipitation
- transpiration
- rainfall pattern
- ocean circulation
- feedback
- positive feedback
- negative feedback
- albedo feedback
- plant growth feedback
- ice albedo feedback
- amplify
- reduce
- instability
- permafrost
- accelerate
- initial conditions
Section 16.2 Causes of climate change
- weather
- climate
- forcing
- climate-forcing mechanism
- insolation
- incoming solar radiation
- star
- solar life history
- orbital cycles
- cyclical
- Earth’s orbit
- Earth’s rotation
- eccentricity
- elliptical
- circular
- orbit
- obliquity
- Earth’s axis of rotation
- seasonal difference
- precession
- glacial cycles
- Milankovic cycles / Milankovitch cycles
- northern hemisphere
- oxygen isotope record
- ice core
- microfossils
- particles
- sunspot cycle
- sunspot
- plasma
- magnetic field lines
- solar energy
- solar energy output
- average
- global average temperature
- global average temperature anomaly
- climate forcing
- absorb / absorption
- heat transport
- current
- ocean current
- surface current
- deep current
- density
- thermohaline circulation
- Gulf Stream current
- downwelling
- upwelling
- North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW)
- Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)
- circulation
- intermediate water
- deep water
- Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC)
- decadal cycles
- model simulation
- ice albedo feedback effect
- El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
- La Niña
- global scale
- reflect / reflected / reflectivity
- evaporative cooling
- greenhouse gases (GHGs)
- GHG emissions
- infrared (IR) radiation
- greenhouse effect
Section 16.3 Methods for studying past climate
- paleoclimate / palaeoclimate
- direct data
- proxy data
- instrumental data
- instrumental records
- meteorological station network
- climate variation
- glacier
- ice sheet
- sea ice
- climate anomaly / anomalies
- tree growth rings
- drought
- dendroclimatology
- isotope
- stable isotopes
- radioactive isotopes
- fingerprint
- reconstruct
- water vapour
- methane
- carbon dioxide
- climate zone
- subtropical climate zone
- temperate climate zone
- palynology
- varves
Section 16.4 Computer models of the Earth system
- Earth-system computer models
- global warming
- datum / data
- variable
- results
- computer model
- grid cells
- calculate / calculation
- predict / prediction
- uncertainty
- global change
Section 16.5 Humans in the Earth system
- anthropogenic
- Agricultural Revolution
- Industrial Revolution
- fossil fuels
- photosynthesis
- stable carbon isotopes
- parts per thousand / per mil / ‰
- Anthropocene Epoch
- half-life
- “hockey-stick” diagram
- sea level change
Section 16.6 Welcome to the Anthropocene
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- extreme climate-system events
- extreme weather
- sea-level rise
- tropical storm
- evaporation
- permafrost
Other vocabulary
- environmental processes
- solar forcing
- diurnal
- seasonal temperatures
- cryosphere
- troposphere
- aerosols
- convection
- friction
- boundary layer
- trade winds
- troposphere cells
- stratosphere
- altitude
- ozone
- radiation
- ultraviolet (UV) radiation / UV light
- turbulence
- major gases
- minor gases
- trace gases
- continental water
- groundwater
- saltwater
- freshwater
- infiltration
- surface flow
- sublimation
- condensation
- vertical convection
- horizontal movement
- salinity gradient
- temperature gradient
- hydrous mineral
- polar oceans
- land surface
- radiate
- topography
- orographic precipitation
- rain shadow
- ash particles
- depletion
- ubiquitous
- biomass
- visible light
- electromagnetic spectrum
- photon
- global heat budget
- long wave radiation
- short wave radiation
- CFCs
- radiative damping
- water vapour feedback
- climate models
- short-term variations
- long-term variation
- interglacial period
- glacial period
- minimum
- maximum
- glacial maximum / maxima
- climate record
- anomalous
- deforestation
- biomass burning
- cement
- ocean warming
- ocean acidification
- weather disaster
- eustacy
- isostacy
