Climate Science
14 questions tagged Climate Science — spanning every one of the seven Ws.
What Is Permafrost?
Permafrost is ground that remains frozen (at or below 0 degrees Celsius) continuously for at least two consecutive years, found beneath about 15% of the Northern Hemisphere land surface.
When Did the Ice Ages Begin?
The current series of ice ages (the Quaternary glaciation) began about 2.58 million years ago, though Earth has experienced several glacial periods over billions of years, including "Snowball Earth" events about 720-635 million years ago.
When Was the Greenhouse Effect Discovered?
Joseph Fourier first described the greenhouse effect in 1824, and Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated CO2 warming experimentally in 1856, three years before John Tyndall published similar findings.
Where Is the Ross Ice Shelf?
The Ross Ice Shelf is in Antarctica, bordering the Ross Sea in the western half of the continent — it is the largest ice shelf in the world, roughly the size of France.
How Does Carbon Capture Work?
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves capturing CO2 from industrial emissions or directly from the atmosphere, compressing it, and storing it underground in geological formations to prevent it from contributing to climate change.
Why Is Venus Hotter Than Mercury?
Despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun, Venus is hotter than Mercury because its thick atmosphere (96.5% CO2) traps heat through an extreme greenhouse effect, raising surface temperatures to about 465 degrees Celsius.
What Is Albedo?
Albedo is the fraction of incoming solar radiation that a surface reflects back into space, ranging from 0 (absorbs all light) to 1 (reflects all light) — it is a key factor in Earth energy balance and climate.
Which Volcanic Eruption Most Recently Affected Global Climate?
The January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai in Tonga was the most powerful volcanic event in decades, but the eruption that most recently caused significant global cooling was Mount Pinatubo (Philippines) in June 1991, which lowered global temperatures by about 0.5 degrees Celsius for two years.
When did the first bird species become a symbol of climate change science?
Birds became a prominent climate indicator in the late 20th century, especially from the 1980s onward.
Whose research first linked climate change to ancient ice cores?
Willi Dansgaard and colleagues pioneered the use of ice cores for paleoclimate research in the 1950s and 1960s. Ice cores preserve trapped bubbles of ancient atmosphere.
What is a tree ring?
A tree ring is a yearly layer of wood formed as a tree grows. Counting rings can reveal a tree's age and past growing conditions.
Whose theory explained the origin of ice ages using Earth's motions?
Milutin Milankovitch developed the astronomical theory of climate change in the early 20th century. He linked ice ages to changes in Earth's orbit and tilt.
Whose idea introduced the greenhouse effect in climate science?
John Tyndall showed in the 1850s and 1860s that certain gases, including water vapor and carbon dioxide, absorb heat. His experiments laid the groundwork for modern greenhouse-effect science.
Whose experiments first measured how carbon dioxide changes Earth’s heat balance?
Svante Arrhenius estimated in 1896 that more carbon dioxide could raise global temperatures. He is often credited with the first quantitative climate-warming calculation.