Global Weather

The movement of air in Hadley cells interacts with other atmospheric phenomena to produce global jet streams that are, in a sense, shifting rivers of air that may be several kilometers deep and several tens of kilometers wide. Jet streams move through discontinuities in the tropopause (the boundary between the stratosphere and the troposphere) generally from west to east at velocities around 200 km/h (well over 100 mph) in so doing, they redistribute huge amounts of air and have a strong influence on weather patterns. 

The aforementioned movement of air combines with other atmospheric phenomena to shift massive amounts of energy over long distances on Earth. If it was not for this effect, the equatorial regions would be unbearably hot and the regions closer to the poles intolerably cold. About half of the heat that is redistributed is carried as sensible heat by air circulation, almost one-third is carried by water vapor as latent heat, and the remaining approximately 20% is moved by ocean currents. 

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In addition, even small temperature fluctuations may alter global weather patterns and perhaps lead to serious droughts. 

Tcan be seen as the global weathering rate, and (t- P) as the chemical weathering rate. The use of two nuclides, i and j, leads to simple relationships between the parameters. Assuming secular equilibrium for the unweathered material, the fraction of nuclide j in each phase of the system is inferred from the NijNj activity ratios in water and weathering product. 

First, climate change is connected to global weather patterns that may increase the potential for losses so large. As more severe weather becomes more common and overall variability of conditions increases, there is a threat for the solvency of insurance companies. 

The final column presents the radius of 50% mortality from fallout 1 hour after the explosion. Of all of the threats described, fallout is the hardest to predict because of the influence of local, regional, or even global weather patterns. The mushroom cloud can rise into the atmosphere as far as 80,000 feet, where wind and rain influence the time and location for fallout to occur.2 Individuals several miles from ground zero and well outside any radius presented in Table 5.1 can receive significant or even lethal radiation doses from fallout. However, while the air blast, thermal burns, and initial radiation are threats in all directions, fallout is a threat downwind from ground zero. Wind speed and direction vary at different altitudes, and it is safest to assume that fallout is a potential threat in all directions from ground zero. Individuals outside the blast zone generally will have several minutes to an hour or more to seek shelter before fallout arrives. 

Figure 16. (a) Ca isotope record from marine carbonates (De La Rocha and DePaolo 2000). The variations are inferred to reflect variations in the isotopic composition of seawater (which is heavier by about 1,4%o). The small excursions of S Ca reflect changes in the global weathering cycle they are recast in (b) in terms of the ratio of the flux of calcium being delivered to the ocean by weathering (Fw) to the flux of Ca being removed from the ocean by carbonate sedimentation (c) Smoothed record of benthic foraminiferal 5 0 for the Cenozoic time period from Zachos et al. (2001). 

J. Pickett, M. Gardner, D. Gibson, and S. Rice, Global weathering of aromatic engineering thermoplastics, Polym. Degrad. Stab., 90(3) 405-417, December 2005. 

Was this your answer The uncertainty is due to the large number of variables that determine global weather. As the debates continue, bear in mind that the issue is not global warming itself but rather its potential effects. 

The volcanic explosion that destroyed the Indonesian island of Krakatau on August 27,1883, released an estimated 4.3 cubic miles (mi3) of debris into the atmosphere and affected global weather for years. In SI units, how many cubic meters (m3) of debris were released ... 

Lear C. H., Elderfield H., and Wilson P. A. (2003) A Cenozoic seawater Sr/Ca record from benthic foraminiferal calcite and its appheation in determining global weathering fluxes. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 208, 69—84. 

Global weather pattern Local weather pattern Individual clouds Convective flow in clouds Molecular transport The molecules themselves... 

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