Questions tagged [climate]
Average weather conditions for a particular area measured over multiple years or decades. For questions on climate change use the [climate-change] tag.
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What happens when the North and South poles flip?
How long does it take the magnetic field to move once the poles start to flip?
What environmentally would change? Does the core of the Earth flip?
The magnetic poles are moving now. When will it start ...
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How much of the current global warming is due to human influence?
Approximately what proportion of the global warming seen over the the last century is attributed to anthropogenic sources?
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What are the major differences between weather models and climate models?
Some weather models include GFS (Global Forecast System) and NAM (North American Mesoscale Model).
Some climate models include CCSM (Community Climate System Model) and the NASA GISS (Goddard ...
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What fraction of dry land is below sea level?
Someone just asked me if it would be practical to counter the rise of sea level by pumping water into storage on land. It struck me that if there is enough land below sea level, this would require ...
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Simple Climate Models that Predict Climate Change
I have a physics/maths background, and to me the most convincing evidence of a scientific fact is often a very simple model that gives reasonable results. A simplified model, which you can fully ...
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If the earth is a globe, what causes temperature differences across lines of latitude?
If the earth is a globe and the sun is 93 million miles away, why is the equator the hottest place on earth?
In terms of distances to the sun, the distance to the equator is almost equal to that as ...
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Why do greenhouse gases affect ocean temperature so much?
As I understand it, greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation from the sun. Much of that radiation would otherwise continue and be absorbed on the planet surface in the ocean or on land.
If CO2 ...
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How good were climate models of the 1990s at predicting the global temperature trends of the 2000s/2010s?
Was there a significant bias between the ensemble of climate models and the long-term temperature trends?
What about spatial patterns?
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Why is the temperature *still* rising?
2015 is the hottest year on record, and the average temperature continues to rise.
I don't understand why this continues, as (over the past twenty years) so much work was put into reducing Global ...
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Why is March colder than September in Northern Hemisphere?
Forgive my ignorance of the subject but I was always wondered about the exact reason of this phenomenon.
Vernal equinox happens around March 20, whereas autumnal equinox happens around September 22, ...
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Can large (and wet) storms really trigger large magnitude Earthquakes?
At the 2011 AGU Fall meeting, this poster claimed that the water erosion from Taiwan's wettest storms could prematurely trigger large magnitude earthquakes , $ M \ge 6.0 $. If this was true, this ...
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How will cloud feedback effects on the climate change as the result of global warming?
So global warming will increase the tropospheric temperatures, which, in turn, would make the clouds higher than they otherwise would be.
And higher clouds (especially cirrus clouds) tend to trap in ...
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Why does winter get colder after the solstice?
Intuitively, it makes perfect sense to think that the coldest day of the year would be the day that gets the least sunshine, the winter solstice. In the northern hemisphere, this occurs a few days ...
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Why is Somalia so dry?
Most deserts are a result of the rainshadow effect, cold currents, the subtropical ridges, or a combination of those. Knowing this, how is the Somali desert caused?
It is notable since it has a desert ...
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Deciphering NCDC data
I need US monthly climate data for the years 1992-2012. It would be great to get down to a county level, but by state would be just fine. Every site that I go to inevitably kicks me to the NCDC, but I ...
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Will a new glacial age take place on Earth or Holocene will become a new climatic epoch?
Pleistocene shows a switch between glacial and interglacial ages.
However, humanity is burning fossil fuels and increasing atmosphere's $\ce{CO2}$ content.
Should we expect a new glacial age after ...
user20559
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What sort of climate zones would be present if Earth was tilted like Uranus?
The three main climate zones on Earth are tropics, temperate and polar. Due to Earth's axial tilt, the three zones experience different seasonal patterns:
The tropics experience 2 or 4 wet/dry ...
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Does the strength of Earth's magnetic field influence its climate?
The strength and orientation of Earth's magnetic field varies with time.
Does this variation of the magnetic field have any influence upon climate? For example, is there any correlation between ice ...
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Where is the calmest place on Earth?
I have done some research online, and I've found out that Antarctica has the calmest winds (lowest maximum wind speed) recorded on Earth. However, it is uninhabitable for human life. Other very calm ...
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Why does the Inter tropical Convergence Zone shift?
I am currently learning at school about the climatic conditions (mainly winds, difference in pressure, Coriolis effect, etc.) that cause and affect the monsoons received by India.
One of the factors ...
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Is the Earth's hot inner core necessary for life?
The inner core of the Earth has an enormous temperature of around 4300 degrees Celsius. Is this large inner core temperature an important factor contributing to the ideal temperature that is ...
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Climate on an Earth without an Axial Tilt
The Premise
The Earth rotates on its own axis, which is tilted by about 23 degrees. I am imagining a situation where such an axial tilt does not exist.
From general reading, it appears the largest ...
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How does Antarctica stay frozen?
Antarctica receives heat from the Sun every day, so how does it stay frozen?
I have some thoughts about the answer but I'm unsure of whether it is correct; I hope people here can clarify.
My idea: ...
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Did climate cool down when underground hydrocarbons stocks formed?
As far as I understand, the dominant theory of modern climate change says that recent warming is mainly caused by the massive burning of hydrocarbons that used to be stored in solid form mostly ...
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Rate of climate change with and without humans?
I was watching this interview of Bill Nye on Fox News. Bill claimed that the earth's climate is never in equilibrium, but human activity has caused the gradient to be much higher than it would've been ...
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Is it hotter in different places with the same air temperature?
I am from (and live in) Minnesota, USA. In the summer here it always reaches temperatures in the 90s (F) for periods of time but not every week. The humidity is often high and the dew point often ...
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How can I convert the negative values of the ERA5 PET data into positive?
I planned to use the ERA5 Potential evapotranspiration data for drought analsysis (SPEI), however values are presented in negative number. Of course I understand the logic for presenting PET negative. ...
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What started the US Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and could it happen again?
Most of us know about the Dust Bowl: the huge storms of dirt and dust that swept across America in the 1930's. But what I'm wondering is...
What actually triggered the start of the Dust Bowl?
Is it ...
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How can the average coldest day of the year be before the winter solstice?
There are parts of the U.S. where, on average, the coldest day of the year comes before December 21st. [source]
How can this be? Why would temperatures start rising again even while days are still ...
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How accurate are climate proxies in giving us a clear picture of global average temperatures throughout Earth history?
Since reliable modern records of climate only began in the 1880s, proxies provide a means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began, though it appears that the the ...
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How much would the Greenland landmass isostatic rebound contribute to long term climate change?
In reading the question What would the geology and climate of a supposed landmass near the pole be like, assuming a thoroughly warmer planet?, it came to mind that another factor may cause a shift in ...
user889
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How does the precession of the Earth's apses affect climate?
The gravitational influence of the gas giants (plus general-relativistic effects) are known to cause the apses of the Earth's orbit to precess. For an illustration of that process, see this image. Now,...
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Did global warming cause the extreme cold 2013-14 winter in North America?
There have been some claims made (example) that global warming had something to do with why the 2013-2014 winter was so cold in the Midwest area of America.
If this is true then how did global ...
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When will glaciation resume? Has global warming delayed return to global cooling?
As far as I understand, we are currently living in the Holocene, an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, i.e. the current ice age that has so far lasted 2.6 million years. The Holocene ...
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Does the elliptical orbit of the Earth have effect on Earth's climate?
I know the Earth is nearest to Sun during the summers of the southern hemisphere. Does the orbit affect the climate actually? For example, would there be any difference if the Earth had a perfectly ...
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How were we able to measure carbon dioxide levels in earlier climates?
It is said that carbon dioxide levels were much higher during the Cretaceous and Eocene periods: which proxies are used to determine paleo-pCO2?
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Did the Neolithic Revolution have an effect on the earth's climate?
I imagine that human agriculture had a major effect on the composition of flora across the planet's surface.
Did the transition from gathering to growing have a measurable effect on climate? If so, ...
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Do satellites decrease the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth?
According to this website, there were 3,372 active satellites in orbit at the beginning of 2021. Furthermore, SpaceX is planning to launch 12,000 satellites to provide cheap internet for everybody, ...
user20559
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What impact on climate did 2011 earthquake and tsunami have?
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was one of the biggest in modern history; the earthquake even moved Earth's axis for a very small, but measurable bit. The four years since then is not enough ...
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How much carbon is sequestered out of the atmosphere through marine snow?
Marine snow in the deep ocean is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. How much carbon is sequestered in this process? How does it compare ...
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What are monsoons caused by? [closed]
Traditionally we think of them as being caused by differences in land-sea heating.
But more recently, some researchers, like Simona Bordoni and William Boos, have argued otherwise.
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The Tambora eruption caused the "Year without a summer". How much would such an eruption today affect the output of solar pv on a global scale?
Are there any estimates for the reduction of global solar insolation at the Earth's surface that a Tambora scale eruption would bring?
If our electrical power generation became heavily reliant on ...
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I just read news that Antarctica had set a new record high temperature, above 18 °C. How can this be the case if it is currently winter there?
Currently it is winter in Antarctica. According to news I read, Antarctica has set a new record high temperature, above 18 °C. How did this temperature records occur?
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Relation of El Niño to Monsoons
Scientists are forecasting a weak to moderate El Niño event to emerge in the coming months, what causes this to happen? Once developed, how will the El Niño conditions effect progressive monsoon ...
user668
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What meteorological factors contribute to springtime Trans-Pacific air-pollution events?
The transport of tropospheric ozone, ozone precursors, carbon monoxide, etc from Asia to North America is an active area of research (see J.L. Ambrose, et al., 2011) These types of events occur ...
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A good book or source for climate science and meteorology basics?
I have a mainly a hydro-geological and geo-statistical background, I would like to have a basic introduction to meteorological, climatic processes and modelling techniques related to these fields. Any ...
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Does general relativity influence climate (vs Newtonian mechanics)
That may sounds like a silly question but here it is.
One of the early great successes of general relativity was to explain the discrepancy between the prehilion advance of Mercury predicted by ...
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Why has CO2 decreased in the history of the Earth?
I noticed that the $\ce{CO2}$ is actually decreasing in the eon time.
My guess is lush vegetation or forests began to grow which absorbed the $\ce{CO2}$ by photosynthesis? Would anyone give me any ...
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Would a global cooling event disable solar energy usage?
Imagine that we've improved the level quality, affordability, and ease of use of photo-voltaic solar, and it's use is widely distributed in the USA. We've improved the grid for power distribution, we ...
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What would the geology and climate of a supposed landmass near the pole be like, assuming a thoroughly warmer planet? [closed]
I am designing a fantasy setting for pen-and-paper role-playing (and potential novel) purposes. I have decided that a continent be situated right on a Pole of some imaginary planet with axial tilt ...
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